Empyreal Paradox
by Nes Mikel
Summary: AU: Naruto. Sakura. The Village of the Hidden Leaf. At the end, there was only the beginning. [Sequel to Garden of Sanctuary and Medusa Javelin]
1. Coalescent

"_**Empyreal Paradox"**_

_By Nes Mikel_

_Acknowledgment;_

_I herby acknowledge that the work of fiction presented here is for my own personal amusement and entertainment purposes alone. Most of the story, characters, place names and other etc stuff in this fiction are copyright Naruto, Kishimoto Masashi, Weekly Shounen Jump, and any others I might have forgot._

_For non up-to-date readers, this fiction contains characters and events introduced post-timeskip and spoilers up to the latest Naruto manga chapters._

_I also humbly suggest reading Garden of Sanctuary and Medusa Javelin first before reading this fiction. Although not a requirement, many things in this fiction will not make sense unless they have been read beforehand. The links to both fictions are in my profile._

_With that said, enjoy._

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox"**_

* * *

_**- Prologue -**_

"_**Coalescent"**_

_adj – to come together, to form as a whole_

* * *

It was always the same dream.

He supposed his dream should've actually been a pleasant dream, but for some morbid reason he couldn't quite put a finger on, the dream was something frightening and had him struggling throughout his entire sleep.

It wasn't the face of the woman in his dreams who was causing him this. It couldn't have possibly been, for he could see practically nothing of her, the only clues to her femininity her drabbles of faded red. Instead, what bothered him was the physical contact he had with her in that dream. The woman had a painful vice grip on his left wrist, pulling him along behind her faster than he wanted to move. He staggered occasionally in this dream, unable to keep up with the woman's fast pace. Yet somehow, he was able to run right alongside her, and although he had never been able to see her face in the dream, he already had a vague idea of what she looked like. He imagined her to have a comely face, skin as smooth as a newborn, sparkling emerald-green eyes, and… an enormous forehead? And her hair, the most colorful, beautiful hair he had ever known, her hair the color of roses.

How he knew of this, he had no idea.

The dream went on like this: the woman in his dreams will come to him in a darkened room, shaking him into semi-wakefulness and talking unintelligibly in tones of great urgency, tugging and pulling at him all the while he rose from the floor. He suspected that she might have helped him to dress, and eventually that suspicion always turned into certainty when he remembered that he had been naked. He had no memory of why he was naked in the first place, or how he was even dressed (he really did wish to see how that part of the scene played out), but soon not even that mattered anymore. By now, the woman was leading him through a nightmarish maze of ill-lit, twisting passageways, each of them indistinguishable from its neighbors. She was constantly tugging at him to move faster every time he tried to slow down. He simply wanted to lie down on the floor and never move from that same spot ever again, but the woman would not even grant him that peace. She punches him in the face and drags him across the corridors with her hand on his ankles. He wonders where that monstrous strength comes from.

Occasionally she does stop, pushing him against a wall, leaning her weight against him and holding a hand over his mouth, as though to prevent him from crying out and altering whatever sentinels that wandered around these passageways.

Finally, they will come to a doorway. She urges him to pass through it, but again he hesitates, for he had been accustomed to the darkness of these dungeons underground, and he was afraid of the blinding light that was seething through the tiny cracks of the wooden door. But she ignores his protests and throws open the door and blinds him with the glaring rays of pure light, but still she has him pulled along behind her, dragging him towards the light and in it.

Now, however, she stops. He stops with her, standing without moving for the first time in what seemed like hours, even days. His wrists feel as through they were on fire from the way she had gripped them, and there was an ache in his chest that grew unbearable whenever he tried to breath hard or too deeply. There were noises now, too, coming from somewhere, but they sounded muffled, distant, incomprehensible. He concentrates his ears so he could try listening. Nothing reaches him.

The woman was no longer holding his wrist, he noticed. Ever slowly, he tries to open his eyes. Surprisingly, he only had to cringe a little before opened them fully. He turned his head to look at the woman that was supposed to be besides him, but she had vanished, as if she had never been there at all. He was alone again, in a field of white light, the emptiness stretching across the entire horizon and beyond.

He opens his mouth and tries to cry out her name.

But then the dream ends.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, he noticed there was no moon tonight. Easing out his drowsiness, he blinked once, and then twice, and continued to stare at the specially made window that once had admitted moonlight and nothing else embedded high inside the ceiling and wondered briefly why he hasn't seen that heavenly light for quite some time now. And when he said 'quite some time', he meant it. Although he could never guess on the exact time of duration, he suspected that it must've been at least two hundred years since he had last seen the fragments of white rays.

He suspected the actual time that had passed was even more than that. He couldn't quite explain why he thought of his suspicions in that way, though. It was probably some sort of subconscious memory he had a very long time ago; a memory of an event where he only thought a year had passed when in reality a hundred years had passed in the outside world. But if that ratio were true, did that mean twenty thousand years had passed in the outside world? And hell, even if that were true, the disappearance of moonlight felt like it only happened just yesterday, as he had spent considerable more time watching moonlight rather than without it. So that meant that the twenty thousand years without moonlight was only a fraction compared to the total time he did spend down here.

The outside world… what was it like now? He could only barely remember what it was like before he came here, and they were only the most minor of things. Like how the air moved outside, when it was constantly still down here. Or how the temperate changed or how the light turned from bright to dark, whereas the temperature down here always remained static and he was surrounded in constant darkness. And the outside world was up there, while he was down here. All he knew now was that the outside world was the exact opposite of the world he now lived in. In here, it stayed constant for a long time. Outside, things rapidly changed. Of the two, he didn't know which was the better one. But not like that mattered. He could not leave.

But…saying that things here always remained constant would be a lie. In here, things too did change. The oldest memory he has of something changing was the loss of an object he cherished. All he remembered of it was that it was some kind of note, a small book, and within it, it contained memories beyond his memories that he had hoped to preserve for eternity. But time had passed, and nature came in and took its course. The book decayed, leaving only ash. It had ultimately turned into nutrients that fed his shadowmoon flowers.

He supposed that memory too was something that didn't remain constant within him as well. Come to think of it, wasn't that change just as old as the loss of his precious item? He had tried debating to himself, about… oh, three hundred times at least, about which of the two, the loss of his memory or the loss of his item, was the older of the loss. In fact, or rather, as far as he remembered, the number of three hundred was a random guess he conjured in his mind. It was entirely possible that he had debated to himself about that same topic countless of times more, only that he couldn't simply remember them. With his surrounding so constant, keeping track of things was an almost impossible task.

But he somehow kept track, by keeping track of the little, but still occurring changes that happened after the years and decades and centuries had dragged on. Like the times he felt a tremor, or the times when some unlawful small insect had somehow wandered into his domain, or when gravity took over and caved a small part of the room in, or when the shadowmoon flowers around him started to disappear one by one. Yes, even the shadowmoon flowers were not exempt from the cruel flow of time; they too were no longer a constant anymore. It was even a miracle that they had not faded away from his memories yet, actually.

He once held a distinct assumption that the shadowmoon flower he created would live on forever just like him. As long as he nurtured it with his spiritual energy he remembers it being called chakra as well as photosynthesizing the pale green with the moonlight that periodically shined through the overhead window, he thought that the garden that surrounded him will never wither, and as long as the garden lived on, he believed he would forever preserve the memory of the book forever, the nutrients of decayed paper combining and living within his flowers for eternity.

But all that changed with one sentence.

…_**THE PINNICAL… IS HERE…**_

He called it the 'voice', and he didn't like its presence. He is sure he once knew of its name, just like he did his, but the 'voice' itself wasn't very talkative so he remembers its name was one of the first things he had forgotten. He also remembers he hated it when he still had all of his memories, and so he never often tried talking with it although it too usually ignored him when he did try. And when it did speak, it often talked nonsense, and this too was one such case. Or it should've been, at least, but after it had spoken, the moonlight no longer shined through the overhead window. And without the light, the shadowmoon flowers around him slowly withered one by one until all of them eventually died.

Only once did he try asking the 'voice' about why the moonlight had disappeared.

_Was it you?_

…_**VIR… TUE…**_

_How did it disappear?_

…_**IN… FINITY…**_

_Why did it disappear?_

…_**PARA… DOX…**_

Oh how helpful the 'voice' was.

But still, three words were more than he'd ever expected out of the voice, and he had plenty of time to speculate about their true meaning. But he also knew he himself wasn't that smart when it came to figuring about cryptic messages from voices from the ancient past, so that topic was something he soon gave up on and he moved on to different, more important manners. But then he would eventually realize that there are no other important matters, or rather, there are no such things as other things, and so eventually he just let his consciousness drift out into the void and let it wander around aimlessly. Occasionally it stumbled upon this stone, and when he did he tried asking the 'voice' about it again, but since then it had never responded. Actually, now that he thought about it, a long time had passed since last spoke with the 'voice'…

_Are you there?_

No response, as expected. He should've known better, but well, obviously, he didn't. He tried again.

_Are you there?_

Still no response. Well then… how did that famous saying go…? Oh yeah, third time's a charm…

_Hey you, ass for brains, you there?_

Well, at least that was something. He heard its silence.

_Now that you have my attention, I would rather appreciate it if you respond in kind._

…_**WHAT DO YOU WANT?**_

He was a little surprised and unconsciously opened one of his eyes into the surrounding darkness. The 'voice' was talking to him and it was not talking to him in nonsense language.

_**I WAS ASKING YOU A QUESTION, BRAT.**_

By now both of his eyes were open, fully alert for the first time in what felt like millennia. A corner of his aged mind told him that he supposed he should've been thankful that the 'voice' was unable to read his thoughts, but then again he wasn't exactly speaking to the 'voice' through his mouth but his mind. He wasn't exactly sure how it worked, only that somehow, when his mind dictated that he was speaking, the other heard him. The explanation, at first seemingly simple, was probably false and the truth most likely complicated. Well, not like it mattered. He was no expert in psychology even through he had the years under his belt. Having a ageless disembodied voice as the only companion did that to you. He decided he would just accept facts as is.

Thinking it over a little bit more, he finally decided on an answer.

_No reason really. What about you, though? What made you change your mind about maintaining that veil of silence?_

…_**THERE IS NO MORE REASON TO.**_

_Why's that?_

_**LOOK UP.**_

He did, and the emotion of surprise, an emotion he had once thought long forgotten, suddenly resurfaced and shocked the every corner of his sleepy mind.

The moonlight had returned.

…_How?_

…_**SOON… WE WILL BE FREE…**_

He wanted to ask more questions, by what the 'voice' meant by their freedom. But he wasn't even given that chance when the emotion of surprise washed over him a second time when he heard it.

…_bo…om…_

It was another sound that he had forgotten. A sound he thought it was foreign to the world inside here, the sound of… an explosion.

It was far away. He could only barely hear it, and he guessed it came from the surface right above. But considering how deep he was here underneath the ground (or at least, what he assumed, since he never remembered exactly how deep he was underground), the actual shockwave would've been on a grand scale. Indeed, seconds later when he first heard the faraway sound, the actual force of the shockwave reached him within here and, for a brief second, rocked every corner of the small world he knew for a long time.

…_**FINALLY.**_

_What was… that?_

_**BAH, JUST GO TO SLEEP, BRAT. YOU WOULD NOT UNDERSTAND.**_

The 'voice' was retreating into its cryptic habits again; what it had just said made no sense to him, again. He was about to ramble on about how the 'voice' was so uncooperative with him when it was obvious that the 'voice' was far more intelligent that he could ever be, and he would prefer it if he would just speak to him in layman's terms so he could understand… but the feeling of deep fatigue suddenly washed all over him.

_You…_

_**SLEEP.**_

He knew it was the doing of the 'voice'. That bastard. It was forcibly robbing him of his consciousness and was trying to put him into sleep. He struggled against the lure, resisting the coming tide, not wanting to let the 'voice' do as it wished with his own body. He wanted answers, and he wanted them now.

_**YOUR ANSWERS WILL COME.**_

It was getting hard now, the tiredness the 'voice' was forcing upon him was just too grand. Never before had the 'voice' tried something so direct like this before. Just what was going on? He had to ask.

…_boom…_

There. The sound of explosion echoed throughout the entire dungeon yet again. It sounded closer this time, coming from directly above. Before he could even fathom a guess on what they were, the 'voice' talked to him again.

_**YOUR ANSWERS WILL COME… AS WELL AS… HER.**_

His overwhelming curiosity won briefly over his urge of sleep.

…_Who will come for me?_

_**SLEEP. AND YOU SHALL FIND OUT.**_

And sleep he did.

* * *

The only thing that stayed constant, always, was the dream.

The dream was no different this time too. Again, the woman in his dreams came to him in his darkened room. Again, she shook him into semi-wakefulness and talked to him in unintelligent tones of great urgency. She was tugging and pulling at him, just like he remembered, and he was still naked. He was then subsequently dressed with no recollection of the process, and found himself with the woman leading him through the nightmarish maze of ill-lit, twisting passageways, each of them still indistinguishable from the others.

Sometimes, he tried to slow down, but she was still constantly tugging at him to move faster. Deep inside, he always wanted to stop, because there was some unearthly desire deep inside him that wished that he had simply remained in his dark room and stayed there. He wanted to lie down and rest for eternity, but the woman still would have none of that and punched him with her monstrous strength, and dragged his limp body across the dark corridors with her hand on his ankle like always. The scene plays out so she does periodically stop, lifting him off the ground and forcibly pushing him against the wall, leaning over and against him, holding a hand over his mouth so he would keep quiet lest the unknown sentinels catch them.

And finally, they come across the dreaded wooden door of light.

Again, she urges him to pass through it, but again he hesitates. No matter how many times he had seen the crack of light seeping through the closed doorway, he was afraid of it. But wait, why was he afraid of it? What was he afraid of? Did he actually take comfort in staying within the flow of time that passed so slowly for him, the dungeon he had stayed for so long? Had he grown attached to it? Was he afraid of leaving it all behind? Was he afraid of… change?

Or was he perhaps afraid of regaining his memory?

But in this dream too, the woman ignores his silent protests and throws open the door, blinding him with the overwhelming pure light, dragging him towards and beyond. Then she stops, and he now no longer feels her hand on his ankle. The feeling of pain aches his wrists and ankles, the burning feeling embalming inside his chest, and he remembers that he should open his eyes just like he did in all the other dreams. He expects to see nothing but the empty white horizon around him, but…

There she was.

In front of him was the woman. Wearing the dress of red, her comely face, the newborn smooth skin, the shining emerald eyes, even her forehead. And her hair… her hair… pink, just like he had always imagined, just like he had remembered after all this time.

He noticed she was smiling.

Smiling… at him!

His eyes are flooded with tears, and he opens his mouth and tries to cry out her name, but he holds back at the last second and squeezes his eyes shut, afraid that the woman would vanish in front of him again, leaving him all alone, all behind. But eventually his hesitation is waved off in favor of the courage he somehow found and opened his eyes again. She was still there, still smiling.

His dry mouth opens.

"…_Sa…"_

He crawls forward and stretches out both of his arms, trying to reach her. She seemed so close, but at the same time she seemed so far away. He did not want to let go of her image.

"…_Saku…"_

He does not know how much time had passed, but he finally reaches her. His pale hands brushes over her cheek. Her smile never wavers, and instead, she responds in kind by cupping both of his cheeks with her hands.

His tears of happiness were now flowing with no restraints, and he finally cries out her name.

"_SAKURA!"_

Her angelic smile widens, and she speaks in the dreamiest of voices he ever heard.

"_Good night, Naruto."_

Shock was the first response to her words. He cannot comprehend.

"_I… I don't… understand…"_

"_You don't have to."_

"…_Are you going to leave me again?"_

He does not understand in the meaning of his own words anymore. He does not know if she had indeed left him all alone, he doesn't remember. Yet the words flow out of his mouth and mind as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

A sorrowful expression crosses over her before she shakes her head and grinds her face back into happiness. She pinches his cheek.

"_Silly Naruto, you think I'm going to leave you?"_

"_I left you… before."_

She lets go of his cheek and the sorrowful expression returns. She does not answer. He speaks up again.

"_Do you… hate me?"_

Silence returns between the two. An undeterminable amount time passes before she answers him.

"_I don't hate you. It wasn't your fault."_

"_It's always my fault."_

He hears her sigh.

"_You haven't changed, have you? You always blame yourself. What happened was not your fault. It was beyond your control."_

"…_I could've done… something. The only reason I'm here is because of my selfish desires of wanting to shut away from everyone, from you."_

"_I told you, I don't hate you."_

He is about to respond, but she places a finger over his lips, silencing him.

"_You don't need to say anything."_

Light suddenly envelops her. He panics. She was slowly disappearing from him. His hands reach out and tries to grab her but he only grabbed some sort of wispy substance as her non-corporeal form slowly dissolved into nothingness. His happy tears soon turn into sorrow. He screams out her name.

"_SAKURA!"_

He feels a rush, and then suddenly an enormous pain slams into his mind. Clutching his head in a futile attempt to curb the sudden pain, his mind's eye sees images, sounds, and the very essence of thoughts suddenly resurfacing within his already frail consciousness. The five senses within him are kicked into maximum drive as he struggles to comprehend.

He was regaining his memory.

He remembers her voice.

"…_Naruto?"_

"…_I've always felt… that I belonged here."_

"_No matter what happens, I'll be back, ok?"_

"_Good night, Naruto."_

"_Good night."_

He screams out her name again.

"_SAKURA!"_

Then he hears her voice one last time.

"_And good morning."_

The dream ends.

* * *

When he wakes up, the first thing he notices is that the moonlight had indeed returned, its rays trickling through the window high above. The second thing he notices is that he is naked, which was strange, because that should've been a given since his clothes had already decayed ages ago and he wonders for a second why he even noticed that. But the reason soon became clear enough when he notices the third, most important thing.

His head was resting on someone else's lap.

"………to?"

It wasn't the 'voice' speaking to him, that's for sure. The source came from outside, not within him, and it sounded entirely like someone else. His gaze shifts so he is now looking directly above him, peeking into the face of the girl that was cradling his head in her lap. He notices something fall from her face and the wet liquid hits his dry face. Water, he realizes, and he looks up and carefully stares into the girl's pale white eyes. They were indeed tears.

"……ruto?"

It takes only a short time for him to finally come to terms with the identity of the girl above him. Her white eyes were different from her usual green, and her forehead was covered with white bandages, but when he saw her hair he finally recognized her for who she was.

"…_Sakura… chan?"_

* * *

"_**Coalescent"**_

_adj – to come together, to form as a whole_

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox"**_

_**- Prologue -**_

_**-END-**_

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

For those new to the story, welcome! For those who have previously read the Garden of Sanctuary and Medusa Javelin, I extend my welcome as well as my thanks for showing interest in the sequel! I finally found the time to write this story! Well, the Prologue of it anyway. Hahaha… ha… (uneasy laugh)

Ahem. First things first, my apologies for the sequel coming out so late, almost ten months since I first declared that I would be writing this story. Ten months! Wow, just imagine. Then, after I had finished Medusa Javelin two weeks ago, I was struggling with a whole bunch of technical issues to make this story work with the twists I revealed in Medusa Javelin so the story flow will stay smooth. I also had to keep in mind about the setting of this AU universe Naruto will now find himself in, and how he would react to it all and how he will learn of the changes to the outside world. I had originally planned to explain it all in one go, but I personally felt it was better if the two incidents were separated, so I settled with the Prologue only introducing Naruto's views while he was still within the dungeon and ended it with the long-awaited reunion with Sakura. All in all, it was something that was quite difficult to write.

What would happen after that is anyone's guess. Yep, you heard me right. Myself, the author still hasn't quite figured out just which direction this story is headed to! Hahahah- (gets pelted by tomatoes)

All joking aside, I do have a general idea of the whole plot outline, but I still find it difficult to explain a few issues that still need to be worked out in order to explain the whole thing in detail. So please, don't expect the First Chapter to come out anytime soon, but I will swear that I will do my best to crank out my chapters as fast as I can and hopefully in good quality.

Also, for previous readers of Medusa Javelin, I must say, wow! I never expected the Epilogue to trigger so many responses! I can't tell you guys how happy I was to see so many reviews flooding my way. Thank you very much, everyone!

Thanks for reading!

- Nes Mikel


	2. Ascendancy

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_By Nes Mikel_

_Acknowledgment;_

_I herby acknowledge that the work of fiction presented here is for my own personal amusement and entertainment purposes alone. Most of the story, characters, place names and other etc stuff in this fiction are copyright Naruto, Kishimoto Masashi, Weekly Shounen Jump, and any others I might have forgot. _

_For non up-to-date readers, this fiction contains characters and events introduced post-timeskip and spoilers up to the latest Naruto manga chapters. _

_I also humbly suggest reading Garden of Sanctuary and Medusa Javelin first before reading this fiction. Although not a requirement, many things in this fiction will not make sense unless they have been read beforehand. The links to both fictions are in my profile. _

_With that said, enjoy._

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox"**_

* * *

_**- Chapter One -**_

"_**Ascendancy"**_

_n – the state of being in governing or controlling influence_

* * *

Sitting on top of the large slab of concrete that originally belonged to some other building, he looked up at the cloudless sky above him, and as he puffed on his pipe he noticed the bright moon lighting up the sky above tonight. So bright, in fact, that the four torches burning on top of the four pillars that held up this open tent proved almost useless for the purpose of illumination. Although it could've been argued that they at least provided heat, seeing as they were in the midst of a windless midsummer night, the air hot and sticky, that purpose too was proven null. The only reason it remained burning was practically for intimidation purposes.

The rather young-looking white-haired man finished exhaling the smoke he contained in his lungs and sat his pipe down on top of another large slab of concrete rubble right next to him and exchanged it with his chopsticks and his nearly forgotten _bento_ box that had been sitting on his lap all this time. He then calmly proceeded to unwrap bamboo wrappings of the _bento_ box so he could unravel its mouth-watering contents he was sure to find inside. Although the timing for the unwrapping was inappropriate, he was merely following the advice of an age-old proverb.

_Hara ga hettewa ikusa wa dekinu. _

War cannot be fought when hungry.

It was a time of war now.

On this particular day, the right half of his _bento _box was stacked with his favorite side dishes like the grilled chicken with sesame seeds, the assorted steamed vegetables, a slice of apple and his most favorite, the _tamagoyaki _– omelette squares cooked with salt and sugar. The other half was packed full with white rice sprinkled with a touch of vinegar and the long-standing staple food for all _bento _boxes, the sour-tasting pickled apricot people believed that would prevent rice from going bad. Typically placed inside a rice-ball or on top of a bed of rice, the _umeboshi _stared back at him from the surface of the open _bento _box.

"Curse them." He mumbled under his breath, cringing at the sight. For a while, the man continued prodding the tiny food with his chopsticks, debating to himself if he should shove it down his throat and get it over with or throw it away in some random direction in a fit of fury.

"And I told them specifically." The man said after he sat his chopsticks down, plucking the small pickled plum out of the box with his fingers after he decided on the latter option. "No. Damn. Apricots."

If looks could kill, the poor unfortunate apricot would've been burned to ashes from the man's glare alone. Unfortunately for him, that was only wishful thinking, and so he opted out for sighing out his negativity instead. _Umeboshi _was the one food he hated with a passion. "It just ain't my day today."

_WHAM!_

Of course, he was perfectly aware of someone sneaking up behind him, eventually becoming the large man with the gigantic sword in his hands. He also was perfectly aware of the large man's intent of wanting to cleave him in two with that deadly blade of his, and so he only had to tilt his body slightly to the left. He felt the blade pass him by harmlessly, missing him completely and cleaving the unfortunate chuck of concrete he was sitting on into two instead.

Still sitting on the intact half of the large slab, the man lazily leaned his head all the way back so he stared at his opponent straight in the eye upside-down. "And you just had to make it even worse."

"As expected of a former Hokage of the Hidden Leaf." The large man said, grinning as he extracted the giant curved blade out of the rubble. "You are a worthy opponent, Lord Seishi."

His head still upside down, the lazy eyes of the man referred to as Seishi narrowed slightly as he recognized the man in front of him. "The 'Butcher of Kusagakure', Mizouchi Rukyou. The sword-wielding berserker who scours the lands to seek the strongest of men just so he can kill them. I wasn't aware that you have joined the ranks of the Mist…" He trailed off when he noticed the scarred Grass forehead protector the man wore around his neck. "…or perhaps not."

"I hold allegiance to no one." The large man replied with a sneer as he shifted his trademark weapon from his left hand to the right.

"I suppose you're only along for the ride, then." Seishi calmly observed as he slowly stood up and turned around to face his opponent directly. He wasn't dumb enough to turn his eyes away from his opponent, however. He was not the one to take any chances.

"Hah!" Rukyou burst into light laughter, looking pleased. "I had only taken advantage of them. The Mist had done their part in scattering your village's defense. I am here to test you, and to kill you. I had always wanted to see how their most infamous traitor of all fares in battle. I never would've expected you sitting here in the open all by yourself though, in front of the village gates no less"

Seishi's lips puckered at the statement. "So the 'Butcher' has been reduced to a mere mercenary. Oh how the mighty have fallen, eh Rukyou?"

The stupid grin on the missing-nin from the Hidden Grass was wiped off clean. A deep, low growl sounded from the inner-depths of his vocal cords. "Don't you dare compare me to a mere mercenary." He seethed, crouching down and readying his weapon.

"If you've taken up the job to assassinate me then you're no better than those others, no?" Seishi replied with a shrug.

"Silence!" The swordsman lunged forward, swinging his sword in a large, horizontal sweep aiming to decapitate the former Hokage of the Hidden Leaf. Seishi rolled his eyes and only had to squat down in order to avoid the attack, but had to suddenly step to the right when he noticed the swordsman had somehow summoned another blade into his other hand and was swinging the blade down at him in a vertical arc. Only his sharp instincts shaped by the years of experience in battle had allowed him to avoid the same fate as that poor boulder from before, but he cringed when he heard a sickening _crack_from under his foot.

Rukyou, meanwhile, had jumped back, putting a safe distance between his opponent and himself after his adversary had successfully dodged his attack. He was looking mildly amused. "I had intended to test you at first… but you actually managed to avoid my _kagenigeki_ – the shadow second strike. You are most impressive, Lord Seishi." He grinned evily. "You are a worthy opponent indeed."

Seishi, however, wasn't listening to him. "Ahhh, dammit!" He shouted, looking dismayed at the crushed object underneath his foot. "You made me step on my chopsticks! Dammit, how am I supposed to eat my food now?

The stupid grin disappeared from Rukyou's face a second time. "Enough with that foolish act of yours, Lord Seishi!" Rukyou violently threw both of his swords down, stabbing both of them down into the ground. He pointed an accusing finger at Seishi. "I demand you take me seriously! I will give you an opportunity to discard those foolish items in your hand so you may take up a weapon instead. I will give you my word that I will not attack you during that time."

"Foolish items?" Seishi asked, looking back and forth at the _umeboshi_he still held in between his fingers in his right hand and the _bento_ box he held in his left. Raising the hand he held the _umeboshi_, he said, "Fine, I admit this pickled apricot is, but this?" He raised the hand he held _bento_ box in slightly. "You accuse this of a foolish item? How _dare_ you!"

Rukyou looked at Seishi as if he were insane. "You intend me to fight with that… that _box?"_

"Of course not! You don't fight with _bento_ boxes, you eat food from them!"

"Then what-"

Seishi coughed once to clear his throat before he launched into his long speech. "When you're crunched for time and don't have time to go out for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, the _bento_ box is the only smart option out there for everyone! _Bento_ boxes are a great way to maximize your nutrition without hassles, and they incorporate some culture in the process as well! Packing food in a_ bento _box is an ancient tradition that dates as far back as the early days of the Reign of the 22nd Emperor, back when there was no such thing as technology for refrigeration. We owe their invitation thanks to the ordinary farm worker, spending long days out in the field without time to sit down and eat a complete meal. For them, packing food from home was essential. Transporting food in its freshest form was even more important in those days, especially because of the long excursions, travels, and trips through different climates common in everyday life. The _bento_ box concept then evolved from this need for food transportation and wholesome packed lunches."

"Um…"

"A substantive meal could be composed of a portion of rice, with a side of fish, cooked vegetables, or other meats. _Bento_ boxes are made from materials such as bamboo leaves like what I have here, or oak bark, and eventually evolved into the more common metal renditions we know today. Oh, and I said that _bento_ boxes incorporate culture as well, right? Well, our food culture appeals to the aesthetic sense, incorporating variety, balanced flavor, and visual appeal in almost all dishes, and our _bento_ boxes are no different because they are designed with efficiency and flexibility in mind. The key thing to remember about packing a _bento_ is considering the balance of food components, since _bento _food is usually eaten a period of time, so it's essential to lay out the food in the most effective way lest it goes bad."

"Uh…"

"Traditional _bento_ is composed of a 1:1 ratio of side and rice dishes. Fish, meat, and cooked vegetables are usually set aside in one compartment, and rice is filled in the other. Some _bento_ boxes have enough space for small bowls, in which case a cold soup,_ sushi_, or other smaller items can be added for variety-"

"That is _enough!"_

Looking at the enraged form of Rukyou charging at him with both of his swords in hand, Seishi sighed. "See, this is the problem with you young ones. You never listen to you elders, even when they're offering you good advice."

"Silence!" Rukyou almost-screamed as his twin swords came bearing down on Seishi's unmoving form. "I have been a fool for even thinking that you were competent!"

_CL-CLANG!_

"Well then, looks like you are a fool indeed."

_Clink… clink… _

"What…? But… but how…!"

Just precisely before the moment of impact, Rukyou felt something solid hit both of his swords, stopping them in mid-air – but that was not what surprised him. What surprised him was that both of his swords, made out of one of the strongest metal alloys known to man, had been sliced cleanly off the hilt and point. The broken blades clattered uselessly onto the ground.

"Did you know?" Seishi said, his smirk wide. "That water, with enough pressure, can cut through even diamond?"

Rukyou couldn't close his gaping mouth shut. "A water cutter…? But… but you didn't… you didn't even make any hand seals!"

Ignoring Rukyou's outburst, Seishi was staring at the man's face, looking mildly mischevious. "You really ought to close that gaping mouth lest I put something like this in."

"Something like- _gwah?" _He wasn't even given a chance to ask what the former Hokage meant with those worlds when the missing-nin suddenly felt a foreign object travel up his mouth and throat. He collapsed down into one knee, chocking out the sour taste in his mouth. What _was _this thing?

"Finally found a use for this stupid _umeboshi_!" Seishi said, laughing.

"Y-You… chea… ter…!"

"All's fair in love and war." Seishi's tone of voice changed, as well as the expression he wore behind the metal faceguard on his face. Setting his _bento _box back down on the ground floor, he pulled a small kunai out in front of him. "Pucker up, Rukyou. You got your wish. I'm coming after you seriously now."

"No, wai-"

"_Suiton: Hijutsu. Chisame." _

Water Element, Secret Technique.

_Bloody Rain. _

* * *

"That was… different, sensei."

Seishi noticed the young man walking towards him as soon as he finished his eating from his _bento _box and folded the now-empty bamboo container and tucked it away in his back pouch. Allowing the brown-haired middle-aged man with a goatee on his chin some time to catch up until he was standing next to him, Seishi then noticed that the man had this curious, if not confused, look on his face.

"But I think you went overboard." The man said, looking genuinely concerned. "Did you really have to use _Chisame_ on him?"

"The guy had the balls to accuse me of being the Mist's traitor, when they were the ones who betrayed me instead." Seishi replied as he eyed the large red stain painted on the dirt floor not so far away from him. It was all that remained of the famed 'Butcher' of the Hidden Grass. "But I did it mostly because it put a good show on for those good-for-nothing Mist-nins who were no doubt spying on our battle. Probably sent out Rukyou just to test me. Isn't that right?"

Seishi's smirk grew wider as he sensed several chakra signatures running away from him as soon as he mouthed those words, no doubt of because what he just said. He turned his attention back to the young man standing still beside him. "You disapprove of my methods?"

"I just wished there was an alternative solution to resolve this conflict."

Seishi responded by closing his eyes. "Those years of peace had made you soft, Monkey." He said, slowly opening his eyes again as he stared at his prized apprentice serious. "That feeling of pity should've disappeared the moment the Mist invaded our village. Discard all that pity you may still have for those foreign shinobi, Monkey. They are our enemies now."

There was a long silence between them. He would have preferred a lively argument, or even a fight to the dead air that was a sharp contrast to the usual lively conversations between them. Only, this time the situation was more serious, and both of them knew it.

"Night has fallen." Seishi commented off-handedly as he slowly rose up from his sitting position, standing shoulder to shoulder to his apprentice and breaking the tense silence between them. "Almost a full day has passed since the invasion now. Has the situation improved any?" He asked, walking past him and towards the former massive village gates that had since been splintered into thousands of kindling from the invading force's initial assault. "Surely, you didn't come all the way out here just to check up on me? I may have retired and passed the title to you, but you know I alone am more than capable enough of holding the ground here."

His apprentice was quick to follow his steps and walked in line behind him. "You don't have to stand guard in front of the gates anymore." He said.

"Oh?"

"Information and Espionage has confirmed that their commanding officers had ordered a full retreat – except for those forward scouts you just chased away just now, of course." The man then snapped his fingers, and at his signal several dozen ninjas cloaked in black capes and dressed in lightweight armor similar to the more-heavy design he wore appeared behind them. "I can now spare enough men to take your place as forward guard." He said. "Your strength is needed elsewhere now, sensei."

A small, proud smile soon appeared on Seishi's face. "Very well, Monkey. You're the boss of the mountain." He spared a quick glance at the elite male and female shinobis standing guard around him. "I'm counting on you people."

The ANBU guards that surrounded them clicked their heels and saluted their former leader. "_Sir yes sir!" _

Chuckling, Seishi bid them farewell and together with his apprentice he walked underneath the large gaping hole the gates left them and took his first steps inside the village he had been protecting for the past twenty or so hours. "What else can you tell me, Monkey?" He asked as soon as he put a good distance between himself and the gates.

"There are some small pockets of Mist-nins still fighting in the village." The current Hokage told his predecessor. "But with your help, as well as from those three, it's only a matter of time before they're subsidized. I'd wager it's safe to say their invasion failed, sensei. It's our victory. We are now refocusing our efforts on-"

"No."

"Pardon?"

"It's not our victory, Monkey." Seishi mumbled bitterly. "Far from it. Those bastards did a good job in delivering a blow to our village. Our village is damaged, and yet, theirs remain intact. That hardly qualifies as a victory in my opinion."

"But-"

He interrupted his student's protest with a sigh. "Never mind, Monkey. Forget what I said. The important thing right now is to focus on the now. You were saying?"

His successor nodded back at him. "We are now refocusing our efforts on moving and clearing out the necessary debris, assigning mostly rookie Genin and Chuunins to the job. Multiple rescue operations are also underway to save several people still buried underneath the collapsed structures."

Seishi lightly bit his lower lip at the news. "Those bastards actually did a good number on our structures? I thought the Hokage Tower was the only one that was badly hit."

"Unfortunately, no. Although you had stopped the majority of the invading force after you volunteered for the position of front guard, it appears now that the ranks of the first wave of invasion forces was filled with collateral damage specialists. Not only was the Hokage Tower demolished, a good portion of the Southern Industrial district and the North-Western Residential district were also hit quite badly. Most of the still ongoing battles are fought in that region too, and it's been hampering the rescue efforts in that area."

"Can you tell me any _good_ news, Monkey?" Seishi said in a strained voice.

"Besides the fact that the Mist's invading force is now in full retreat? Well, I don't know if I can call it good news, but at the very least the rescue efforts around the Hokage Tower is proceeding along smoothly, and…" His student trailed off, shifting his gaze about and around him nervously.

Seishi wasn't the one to miss out on such a thing. "And?" He asked, his curiosity piqued.

"…While working away to clean away the wreckage, one of the excavation works found a hidden entrance to what looks like an ancient underground ruin we never knew it existed running underneath the Hokage Tower. From what we can tell from our initial expedition, the network of tunnels appears to travel down into quite deep depths."

"Is that so... I never knew such… I always did wonder why my brother chose this location to build the tower." Seishi said, amused. "He never told me his reasons. It makes me think if he had chosen this site for such purposes."

His student stared back at him, befuddled. "Sensei, are you suggesting that perhaps maybe… something's down there?"

The former Hokage chuckled at his student's antics. "Now wouldn't that be nice, eh Monkey? To find the very key that'll end this war. Maybe that's why my brother built the tower at that location, for our decedents to use the secrets sealed in the ruins when Konoha is in peril."

"You really think so?" His apprentice asked with both of his eyebrows raised.

A teasing smile still on his face, Seishi shrugged. "Perhaps. But who knows? Either way, there's only one way to find out. Speaking of which, who have you assigned to field the excavation process for the ruins?"

"I have requested the help of the Hyuuga clan." The man answered. "They were reluctant to lend their hand at first, but they eventually conceded and they have sent us one of their Branch family members to help map out the underground passageways. The girl should already be at the site helping the other workers out."

Seishi nodded, satisfied with his answer. "What else can you tell me about the Mist? Has Information and Espionage uncovered any of their plans that might hint at a second invasion?"

"Well, I wouldn't worry about them coming after us again anytime soon. Their attempted invasion on our village had set off a chain reaction, it seems."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"The reports we've received are conflicting and chaotic, but from what we can decipher it seems that, almost simultaneously, the Hidden Cloud had launched an invasion against the Hidden Mist taking advantage of the fact that the brunt of their forces were busy invading us. Interestingly enough, the Hidden Stone then took advantage of the Hidden Cloud's absence of force and launched an invasion against _them_, and the latest reports say that the border patrols spotted a large Hidden Sand force moving in on Hidden Stone territory."

"I'll be damned." Seishi said. His voice was devoid of excitement and was instead replaced with a feeling of astonishment. "One treaty broken right after another."

His student nodded back at him solemnly. "It seems the Third Great Ninja War has indeed begun."

Picking up on his student's depressed mood, he approached him and placed a comforting hand on his open shoulder. "You did all you can, Monkey. You gave peace your best shot."

His student's eyes drifted elsewhere, avoiding his eyes. "My best shot wasn't enough."

Seishi released his hold on the shoulder and took back a step, crossing his arms in front of him. "I know you love peace and abhor war above all else, Monkey." Seishi lectured. "But you have to accept that this world has been plunged into a world of war yet again. Now stop whining and pull yourself together. You have your people and a village to lead."

It appeared his encouragement had a profound effect. The sparkle of fire his apprentice had just lost was now burning brightly in his eyes again. "Of course! I shall not fail you, sensei!" He exclaimed proudly.

"Now that's more like it." Seishi said, grinning from ear to ear. "Now, lead the way, Monkey. We have resistances we need to crush. Can't let your students have all the fun, no?"

His student laughed back at him. "No, of course not."

Both student and teacher soon dissipated from view in giant swirl of leaves.

The student. Commonly known among the world as the 'professor', the diplomat who strived hard for world peace, the third and the most current Hokage whose reign had so far lasted ten years in this village hidden amongst the leaves

_Sarutobi Sasuke. _

The teacher. Known now as one of the legendary two brothers who had originally founded the Village of the Hidden Leaf, he was the former Second Hokage of Konoha Village and the best Water Element Ninjutsu specialist known throughout the entire world.

_Kazama Seishi. _

* * *

There were so many things she wanted to say to him.

Truthfully, she wasn't even supposed to be down here. They were taking a break from their excavation work right now, the others chatting amongst themselves on the debris-free courtyard right next to the ruins of the Hokage Tower and she was supposed to be up there and among with them.

So far, their work had been going along smoothly. Before the break they had been shoveling rubble into the small, wheeled carts they had built to haul away the rubble that blocked a few certain passageways. They used a simple but effective system in where one worker will fill up a cart, and once it was full they would pull on the rope attached to it and whoever was working behind them would at that point pull the filled cart back and push an empty one right back up.

There were occasionally paths that were blocked, most likely by the walls giving in from wear and age, but with the help of her bloodline limit once they cleared the debris they were usually rewarded with new paths that would lead them further down into the underground floors. And in one such blocked path they dug away just hours ago, she found a lateral split in the tunnel, a crevasse formed by some upheaval in the earth that had most likely been caused by the explosive shockwave when the Hokage Tower constructed above the underground ruins had collapsed. It was less dangerous than it appeared to be at first, where one side of the split fell away into a deep, vertical crevasse that was barely more than a stride across, but upon closer inspection she discovered the split to be endlessly deep, for a stone dropped into it produced no sound of impact.

She wasn't really paying attention at first to what kind of task was assigned to her. All her father had told her was that perhaps she could, for once, be useful to him and told her that she was to be assigned to a mundane task any of her other clansmen could easily complete. Knowing full-well of his intentions to provoke her so he would have another perfect excuse to discipline her, she emotionlessly obliged and set off to accomplish her task.

She was grateful, however, to see one of her brothers – the younger one, and her favorite – see her off when she was about to leave her clan compounds. She had hugged him around his legs, her height still too short to reach him around his body, horrified to see him battered but relieved to see him all right after her father had commanded all Branch clan members to the war front when the Hidden Mist invaded their village. Only she herself was spared from the order, but only because she was too young and deemed unworthy on the battlefield. She was viewed as a liability.

The happy thoughts that surfaced upon their reunion, however, soon disappeared when she heard the tragic fate of several of her fellow Branch house family members.

She spoke in almost incoherent tones, her voice shaking. "Then… then Juubei-san… Hyouma-san… even Okoi-san and Saemon-san…!"

Her brother's only response was the silent closing of his eyes. It was a gesture she knew that held the definition of his affirmative.

She cried out, sinking to her knees, banging both of her clenched fists on the ground just in front of her brother's two feet. "…Why… why must fate be so cruel…! Okoi-san… Saemon-san… they were wed together just a week ago! Even knowing the dangers, father had-"

"Don't blame father for this, sister." Her brother said, crouching down next to her and hugging her with one arm. "It is those from the Mist who took away their lives. Father knew what must be done in order to drive those nins out of the village. It's unfortunate, but they died for the sake of protecting the clan. I'm sure they-"

"Don't give me that, Hizashi-niisama! Just because I'm young doesn't make me ignorant!"

"Quiet, sister! They will hear…"

"It's not fair!" She continued, ignoring him. "It's just… it's all so… not…" All the remaining strength in her legs left her as she broke down onto the ground floor, crying as her brother hugged her closer into his chest. "Uu…waaaaaahhh!"

She would've forsaken everything the clan stood for right there and now if it weren't for the comforting words her older brother threw at her soon after.

"…You must be strong, sister." Hizashi said, cradling his sister's tiny form in his arms. "Be strong. If not for the sake of the clan, then at least be strong for my sake, sister, and for the sake of Okoi and Saemon as well. They wouldn't want to see you like this. You have a duty to fulfill."

Wiping her tears away and somehow finding the strength to continue again, she waved goodbye to her good brother and hastily made her ways towards the now-ruined Hokage Tower. She soon met up with the young Chuunin ninja who was directing the efforts on excavating the ruins underneath the Hokage Tower, and although her ability was being doubted on at first for being so young, she soon showed them what her blood was capable of by drawing up a quick sketch of the first layers of the underground passageways. It was only when she was being showered with the impressed praises from the other workers did she notice the pattern in her own drawing.

She recognized them.

The underground passageways were woven in the same pattern as the corridors that led towards Naruto's dungeon when she was still 'Haruno Sakura'.

And now, she was here, after she had snuck out after the excavation crew had opted for a break and ventured down into the corridor ruins all by herself. Slipping through the deep crevasse she found earlier which she suspected would lead her down to the place of destination, she clutched the handle of the oil lamp through her teeth and then focused chakra into her still-underdeveloped chakra coils to will her hands and feet to stick to the rocky surface of the wall of stone as she climbed down. After nearly losing hold of the rocky wall at least half a dozen times, she finally reached the bottom and found herself in the middle of another long corridor that looked similar to all the earlier ones – with one major difference. Wind.

And now, she was here.

"…_Sakura… chan?" _

In reality – or at least, what appeared to be reality to her – she had only been called by that name by the same person only six and a half years ago, the same day when 'Haruno Sakura' died and she herself, 'Hyuuga Setsuka', was brought into this world through her mother's womb. But for Sakura, it had felt like an eternity had passed since she was last blessed with that raspy voice of that stupid, blond-haired blue-eyed kid she fell in love with so long ago.

"Naruto…!" Tears in her eyes, she reached down and hugged the stupid blond idiot with all of her strength.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Sakura-chan! You're… you're killing me here!"

She blinked, once, then twice, and finally a third time before she realized that Naruto was actually complaining at her show of affection. Forcing a smile to her face, she lightly let go of him and allowed Naruto some time to catch his breath, and it was only then when she noticed that he was naked from head to toe. A blush quickly crept up to her cheeks and she quickly spun around, squeezing her eyes shut in hopes of pushing out that indecent memory.

"Hey, hey, Sakura-chan! What's the matter? What are you turning away like that for? It's not like-"

"It's because you're being indecent in front of a lady, you idiot!" She randomly swung a fist behind her head, but she didn't count on her fist actually finding its mark. The unfortunate recipient of said fist flew all the way back towards the far wall of the dungeon. Stunned at first, soon a low rumble echoed from the pits of her stomach until it evolved into full-fledged laughter.

Even after all this time, he hasn't changed at all!

"That really hurt Sakura-chaan…" The whiny voice came back from the other side.

"Honestly, Naruto, I'd say you deserved that." Sakura said as she picked up the lantern from besides her as she callously approached the defeated boy. Setting the lit device behind her as soon as she spotted Naruto lying face flat on the floor, she crouched down in front of him making sure to avoid eye contact with the lower half of his body. "You all right?"

"All right? You're the one who caused this…" Naruto said as he slowly sat up from the floor, rubbing his left cheek that had comically been swollen by at least three fold. She noticed, however, a thin, wispy white stream steaming out of the swelling and bore witness to the swelling healing itself at a rate too fast to be considered natural. Soon, the only legacy that remained of her monstrous punch on Naruto was a small red mark that could've been easily dismissed as just a blush.

Kyuubi's regenerative powers.

_He still has it inside of him… _

She grimaced at the display, but was careful enough to hide most of that expression away from him. Lowering her head and quickly squeezing her eyes shut, she snapped them back open again and stuck out a tounge, smiling mischievously at Naruto. "Sorry! Here, let me make it up to you, then!"

"Hm? What do you me- _ahhhhhh!"_ Naruto was quick to cover up his own two eyes with his hands when he saw Sakura slowly taking her kimono clothes off her body. "Sa-Sakura-chan! What are you _doing?"_

"Heheheh. Like what you see, Naruto?"

"No! Well, yes, but… I mean no! Please, Sakura-chan! Put your clothes back on!"

"Sheesh, don't be such a wuss." Sakura said as she approached him from behind. In a move that startled Naruto, she draped the long sleeves of her simple white kimono dress over his shoulders. "Here, wear this. It should be long enough to cover the necessary parts up."

Reluctantly accepting the garment, Naruto's fidgeting mannerisms told Sakura that although he wanted to turn his head around to and see her with his eyes, he was using all of his willpower not to. The deep blush that tainted his cheeks only served to confirm that. Again he tried to protest. "B-But…"

"I'm still wearing my hakama pants, and I do have bindings over my breasts so you're not going to see anything indecent." She told him. "Unless you of course prefer looking at a naked body of a six year old."

"Six year old…?" His blush faded away as he finally turned around and stared at her seriously for the first time. "I've been meaning to ask you this, Sakura-chan, but… what happened to you?" He reached out with his hand and touched her cheek with a brush of his fingers, as if to confirm that she was truly here with him. "You look so different… and your eyes… what happened to your eyes? Just what…?"

Sakura winced at his words as she gently pushed his hands away. "It's… it's a long story, Naruto. I'm still not sure what exactly happened, either. Sometimes… this… this all feels like a dream to me."

It was the one fear she was deep down always afraid of.

_What if this was all just a dream? _

She was suddenly snapped out of her reverie, however, when Naruto all of a sudden grabbed her hand and tugged it towards him until she felt the flat of her palm over the bare portion of his chest the kimono didn't cover. "Do you feel this, Sakura-chan?"

Because his actions were so sudden, she at first couldn't comprehend what was going on. "W-What?"

"My heart, Sakura-chan."

Realizing now what he meant by his words, Sakura could now indeed feel the steady rhythmic beat of his strong heart, and the warmth that radiated through it. She nodded.

"Do you still think this is a dream?"

Despite herself, she soon found herself smiling.

_Leave it to Naruto to be the one to drive those fears away. _

"I'll tell you everything, Naruto." Sakura said, finding the resolve she so desperately needed to tell him of her tale. "Everything."

* * *

From within the shallow safety the night shadows offered her, Utono Kagerou could do nothing but grind her teeth in seething anger as she watched two of her comrades, one male and one female, both of whom she knew very well, place their hands on the wall in the ultimate display of surrender. Of the three Konoha nins that surrounded the two, one of them, a pale-skinned male, was searching through their robes for any other concealed weapons while another one, this one a blonde female with a sizeable bust, stood guard in front of them with her needle weapons drawn. The last of the three, a white-haired male with red tattoo lines running underneath his eyes, was making a conscious effort in trying to be as loud as possible while searching through the wooden house Kagerou herself was just in moments ago for any other possible enemies. If it weren't for the white-haired man's obnoxious, loud personality, she was sure she would've been caught red-handed just like her comrades had been. Not that she would've surrendered to them like they had, though.

She noticed that one captive comrade, the female one, was standing there with tears in her eyes. Kagerou could literally sense the waves of raw fear pulsing from her, and Kagerou cursed herself for having this stupid ability of being so empathic to the feelings of others. It disgusted her. Mist shinobi were known to keep on fighting no matter what, and those two had tarnished their reputation by surrendering to them so willingly! Love was a foolish emotion, she concluded. They had surrendered because they didn't want to see each other killed. How pathetic. As shinobi, they were failures.

Her master pulled her gently by her arm. "Come along." He said in a low voice. "They will begin to notice us if we give them a reason to."

Kagerou allowed the scowl on her face to disappear as her empathic abilities told her of her master's distress. She noticed that his sweat had glued his hair to his head, and she could sense that her master's leg was throbbing with every stride. For her master and herself, it had taken a miracle for them to escape from the hands of those three ninjas who were currently busy interrogating those traitorous two.

Nodding back at him, she quickly weaved through her memory for the necessary hand seals in order to execute the technique that will teleport both of them to another, more safe location. Soon, the process was complete, as both the student and teacher sunk into the depths of shadows only to reemerge out of another, different shadow inside an abandoned house about fifty meters away. It wasn't much distance, but if she had attempted to teleport them across any larger distances she would've been forced to knead more chakra, chakra that would undoubtedly be detected by those three living legends.

Better safe than sorry was a golden rule to live by.

"What do you think of our enemy?" Her master asked softly as soon as both of them had caught their breath a bit.

"Are you referring to those 'Sannins' we just escaped from, or the ordinary Konoha ninja or its civilians?" Kagerou asked.

"All of them. They are all the same."

"The civilians are no one's enemy." She told him.

"They are your enemy as surely as any other Leaf ninja."

"They've done me no harm." Kagerou whispered back as she dimly remembered watching a group of elderly men and women pulled to their feet and thrust against a wooden wall by what she presumed were Leaf Chuunins when they hadn't moved along quickly enough less than an hour ago. "It's their shinobi who are looking for us. The civilians are forced to endure a house-to-house search for our sake."

"If any civilians spotted us, we would be surrounded by their shinobi in a matter of seconds." Her master told her. "Our mission would end, and we would be captured, interrogated, and then killed. The civilians are your enemy through the potential danger represent."

"Traveling by boat across the Land of Water is potentially dangerous. That doesn't make the boat my enemy."

"In that case, probability is your enemy." Her master said. "At any moment in time, all beings are subject to many potential dangers. You must regard each danger as your enemy, and combat it as best as you can. You must choose safe methods of sea travel, or," He made a slight gesture towards the Konoha shinobi searching the houses besides the road. "If you wish to conceal your true nature, you must hide inside a disguise."

Kagerou said nothing for a moment. They simply could've disguised themselves with a simple henge, but she knew her master was paranoid to the extreme. She knew something in her master's past altered his perception in some way, and although she hadn't bothered to find out what exactly caused him to behave this way, it did bother her to think just how her master seemed to find comfort in thinking that he lived in a world that was determined to end his life.

"What if I die of old age?" She quietly argued as she ignored his suggestion of ambushing the pair of Konoha guards for their uniforms and instead erupted into a cloud of smoke by executing the henge that transformed her into a typical run-of-the-mill female Leaf Chuunin. "The natural end of life is something you can't avoid or hide from." She said. "Surely, life itself is not our enemy."

Her master laughed, softly and to himself as he mirrored her actions and henge'd himself into another ordinary-looking Leaf shinobi and transformed his giant sword into what looked like a giant fuuma shuriken. "No," He answered after the transformation was complete. "Your enemy is time. Or, to be precise, your enemy is entropy."

"You make it sound as though the whole world is determined to kill us." She said before she could stop herself. She quickly covered her mouth up with her hand, ashamed to have said something so unnecessary. What was she thinking? They were in the middle of an enemy village with no hope for help or reinforcements. She overhead the famed 'Sannin' talking amongst them of the crushing fact that the invading Hidden Mist forces had already retreated. It was do or die now – their options were now limited and she didn't like either one of them. Their success meant escape, failure meant death. Thankfully, her master didn't bother commenting on her outburst. In her heart, she breathed out a deep sigh of relief.

After working out a few small details in the event they were stopped for questioning, they walked out of the house. Pushing down the nervousness that crept up whenever squads of Konoha ninjas passed them from either direction, they continued down the night roads in search for a possible escape. Kagerou supposed that the news of their disappearance had already reached the ears of any nearby sentinel (no doubt thanks to those 'Sannin') and so had tried to talk her master into the possibility of working out more complex details so they would appear less suspicious. He insisted otherwise. "Better use the time to travel then to waste time by working out needless details." He said.

The road they followed twisted and turned, but it seemed to be heading towards the center of the village's general direction. They tried a few side paths occasionally to see if they could scale the large walls the surrounded this Hidden Village but her master was quick to spot the genjutsu wards embedded along the giant walls. They had the effect of cancelling out any simple genjutsus nearby, and would've resulted in their needless exposure. Their situation was seemingly getting worse with each passing moment.

Their salvation came from an unexpected source.

It was the Sannin themselves.

* * *

"Goddammit!" Jiraiya exclaimed. "Where the hell did they go? Orochimaru, are you_ sure_ those two we captured didn't know of their whereabouts?"

"Even if they did, Jiraiya, they wouldn't be stupid enough to hide in the same location for long." The sharp-eyed youth with almost all white skin told his fellow Sannin comrade. "Utono Kagerou and her master are no fools, especially so her master. He is not considered the most feared among the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist for nothing. With our forces running a sweeping scan, it is only logical to think that they are changing their hiding locations frequently. I wouldn't be surprised if they're already out of the village by now."

"And may I remind you, Jiraiya." Tsunade cut in from the side. "_You're_ the one who let them get away. If you weren't trying to ogle Kagerou…"

"_I wasn't ogling!"_ He protested.

"Yeah right." She snorted, not believing a single word. "What was it you said back then after you two exchanged your first blows? Oh, right: 'I'm not trying anything. I always put my hands there.'? Honest to god, that was the worst pick-up line _ever_."

"I was _trying_ to persuade her to just give up…"

"Forget it, Jiraiya. You're not convincing anyone."

"Awww man, not you too, Orochimaru!"

"Forget them for now." Orochimaru said seriously. "If they are indeed still hiding inside the village, Sarutobi-sensei and Nidaime-sama will deal with them. I heard that sensei was calling Nidaime-sama back from the front and asked him to help round up the other remanent forces. We should refocus our efforts elsewhere, and that effort now should be poured into helping the wounded and to whatever recovery work we could possibly do."

"Orochimaru's right." Tsunade said, agreeing with him. "I'm going to be really busy now helping patching those wounded up, especially the ones around the Hokage Tower since that region was the worst hit. I expect you to help me carry the wounded back to the Hospital with me, Jiraiya."

"_Whaaat? _But come on, Tsunade, can't you do it by yourself? With your freakish strength, you won't need my-"

A single glare was all it took to change his mind.

"-meandmystupidmouth… of course, Tsunade, I'll be more than happy to help you."

"That's more like it." She grinned wickedly.

"Hey, wait a moment." Jiraiya exclaimed, a thought suddenly occuring to him. "What will Orochimaru be doing then?"

"I too, shall head towards the Hokage Tower, partially to lend a helping hand in the cleaning effort, but mainly because I wanted to see what the deal with the excavation process was. Last I heard they had dispatched a girl from the Hyuuga clan to assist in the mapping. I've heard she's quite talented for her age. I always wanted an opportunity for myself to see just what exactly she's capable of."

"Hey, that's not fair! That sounds like an easy job!"

"Can it, Jiraiya. Let Orochimaru do what he wants. You're stuck with me."

"Why are you always so _nice_ to him, Tsunade! Why wouldn't you choose him to be the one that'll handle your dirty work sometimes?"

"Oh, maybe because you always try to peek on me whenever I bathe and he doesn't?"

"I don't _always _peek on you! And the only reason Orochimaru doesn't is because he's gay!"

"Jiraiya, for the last time, I am not gay. I am merely not interested in women at this stage."

"Ah hah! Denial! See what I mean, Tsunade? That's proof, right there!"

"Jiraiya, do us a favor and just shut up…"

As the three of them walked away towards their common destinations, not once did the dynamic trio notice the two figures carefully concealed in the nearby shadows. After they disappeared, the two figures silently emerged out of the shadows in their still henge'd forms and exchanged two quick glances with each other.

"I believe we found an alternative method for leaving this village." The elder of the two said.

"I believe so too." Kagerou smiled back.

Focusing a brunt of chakra into their legs, not caring that they were near exhausted in capacity, they made their way towards the Hokage Tower with a burst of new speed.

* * *

"_**Ascendancy"**_

_n – the state of being in governing or controlling influence_

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_**- Chapter One - **_

_**-END-**_

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

So ends Chapter One!

Um, again, this is the first edition version. Probably still riddled with grammar errors and such. I always seem to find errors better once the story's online for some strange reason… I'll get around to fixing them eventually. Right now I'm just too tired and sleepy…

Anyway, first things first. about the use of OCs. While I do realize that there are many canon characters I can still use even considering the timeline for this story, it has come to my attention that the story simply cannot proceed without introducing several OCs since canon characters aren't simply enough to make the story entertaining enough for me. Therefore, despite my dislike for using OCs in stories, I really have no other choice. This is especially true for characters filling the 'enemy role', so to speak, but so far in my story I have been successful in incorporating the OCs only into filler roles – BUT there will be some semi-important OC characters introduced in this story later on to for the sake of plot progression.

About the names for the Second and Third Hokage I introduced this chapter. I am a firm believer in the theory that the original model for the First Hokage is Kishimoto Masashi himself and the Second Hokage is, in fact, modeled after Kishimoto Masashi's real-life twin brother Kishimoto Seishi. So, to honor that theory, in this story the First Hokage's name will be 'Kazama Masashi' and the Second Hokage's name 'Kazama Seishi'. I think it's quite fitting, actually.

The reason for the Second Hokage having the 'Kazama' name should be apparent enough. But as for why he's not dead yet, the manga didn't specifically say exactly _when _he died, and instead we are only privy to the detail Tsunade gave us in Chapter 158. To quote: "My grandfather and the Second both focused too much on bringing peace to our home more than anything else… but as a result they just died in the middle of their dreams, just like losers". So there you go. The manga never says they both died at the same time, and so I'll be using this to my advantage.

Oh, and I like _bento_ box lunches but hate _umeboshi _with a seething passion. Now you know where that idea came from. Attack of the killer apricots! P

As for the Third Hokage's name, from what I remember (I never really did bother putting in real research for this one) 'Sarutobi Sasuke' is the name of an actual ninja in Japan history, which, obviously, was the model for the Sarutobi name. I'm also quite fond of another theory (from where I can't remember) that Sasuke was named after the Third Hokage. I'm merely adopting the idea here. But just to avoid confusion, whenever I do refer the Third Hokage by name I will most likely refer him as just Sarutobi.

And last but not least… holy crap! So many reviews just for the prologue! I was just blown away! Thank you everyone, for your support and encouragement!

See you all next chapter!

- Nes Mikel

_Chapter One, Complete, November 13th, 2006 _


	3. Stentorian

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_By Nes Mikel_

_Acknowledgment;_

_I herby acknowledge that the work of fiction presented here is for my own personal amusement and entertainment purposes alone. Most of the story, characters, place names and other etc stuff in this fiction are copyright Naruto, Kishimoto Masashi, Weekly Shounen Jump, and any others I might have forgot. _

_For non up-to-date readers, this fiction contains characters and events introduced post-timeskip and spoilers up to the latest Naruto manga chapters. _

_I also humbly suggest reading Garden of Sanctuary and Medusa Javelin first before reading this fiction. Although not a requirement, many things in this fiction will not make sense unless they have been read beforehand. The links to both fictions are in my profile. _

_With that said, enjoy._

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox"**_

* * *

_**- Chapter Two -**_

"_**Stentorian**_"

_adj – extremely loud_

* * *

"So… what you're saying is that I stayed down here in the dungeons _so long_ that time ended and started _all over again?_ And you were reincarnated as… a _Hyuuga?"_

The disbelieving look on Naruto's face made it all too clear to Sakura that he wasn't ready to take such complicated information all in one stride. Heck, she herself wasn't so sure of the information either.

Until now, she had always thought that Kyuubi had stopped her from dying and threw her back in time using some sort of ancient archaic spell and reincarnated her as 'Hyuuga Setsuka' with all of her previous memories as 'Haruno Sakura' still intact into the world of the past. Why the nine-tailed demon fox, a tailed beast that had once unleashed massive chaos and destruction upon the then-unsuspecting world would do such a thing, she couldn't understand. She wasn't even sure if she even _wanted _to understand, everything was just too confusing to her. She dismissed it as Kyuubi's idea of a sick joke, and tried to live her new life as best as she could.

Her first hints of understanding came when she started mapping the underground ruins running underneath the Hokage Tower using her Byakugan just today. When she recognized the patterns of the corridors as the same ones she remembers traveling down in order to visit Naruto, two distinct, yet harrowing possibilities emerged within her. Possibility number one - she was indeed in the world of the past, and these dungeons were simply ancient ruins that remained undiscovered until today.

And then there was possibility number two – she was in a world where time had _restarted._

She was in the past and the future _at the same time._

It hardly made any sense, but it was more than enough to start her on the road of understanding. It would explain why the Kyuubi told her that she wasn't Hyuuga Setsuka, but Hyuuga Setsuka was she. She was never Hyuuga Setsuka in the first place. Rather, she was going to _become _Hyuuga Setsuka, just as she was now.

And if, just if, if this was a world where time had restarted, a world where time advanced impossibly forward until the whole world restarted itself, then maybe, just maybe, the immortal ones will survive through the impossibilities of time. She herself wasn't immortal, she had only survived into this world due to Kyuubi's interference, but if the tailed demons were immortal then that meant there was a possibility that Naruto was still alive, down there, sealed away in the dungeons. That was the reason why she had snuck out during break, that was the reason why was down here, and that was the reason why she was so overjoyed when she had indeed found him. It didn't take that long, however, for that joy to fade when she realized that her actions today would only serve to create more problems later on.

Perhaps, Sakura thought, it was better to delay this talk to some other day, where both of them were more calm-minded and more accepting to the current situation. And more decently clothed, she added.

But he deserved the truth, more than anything.

"It's the only explanation I can offer." She said. "At first, when I was born into this world I thought it was the start of my reincarnated life but it soon became clear to me that it wasn't the case. To put it simply, Naruto, this world is the restarted world of the past."

"The past?" Naruto's face tightened, looking as if he was trying his best to comprehend. His face lit up into a smile relatively quickly, the smile setting the previously desolate atmosphere into something brighter. "Oohhh! I get it! So does that mean we get to start our lives all over again?"

Sakura was really beginning to admire Naruto in how he could be so positive about almost everything. It was truly astonishing, especially for someone like him who had been locked down here for an almost an infinite number of years to be able to retain his personality so much. If she had been in his predicament, she was sure that not even a shred of her former self would've remain and would either be an empty shell or a total lunatic. It was almost a miracle how Naruto still was Naruto. No, not almost. It _was_ a miracle.

It was almost just as bad for her, however, to be the bearer of bad news and crush Naruto's hopeless dream of starting his life all over again. "No, Naruto. We're not in the past, we're in the past before that."

The confused, disbelieving look on his face returned. "I don't get it, Sakura-chan. Just where are we, then?"

"We're still in Konoha, and you're still in your underground dungeon. That much you can understand, right?"

"Hey, hey, come on now. I'm not _that_ dumb Sakura-chan! That much is totally obvious!"

She chuckled lightly. "Right, sorry. Here, let me put it this way, Naruto, so it's easier to understand. Technically speaking, yes, we're in the past, but not in the past where we were still Genin. We're in the past before that."

"So we're in the past when we were still babies?"

"Before that, Naruto."

"Before we were even born?"

She slowly nodded. She slightly turned her head away, avoiding eye contact with him, not really wanting to hear what his reaction would be. She expected more disbelief, perhaps even denial. Perhaps, perhaps he was even going to refuse her existence…

"That's so cool!"

Her eyes went wide at his cheerful outburst. "…What?"

"I mean, think about it Sakura-chan, think! Do know how awesome this could be? C'mon! Just how many people do you think get to experience something so cool like this! We're in the past! We're like, reliving history again! Oh man, I can't wait to see what the outside world looks like!"

His last words made her wince. He was going to be disappointed when he sees the Hokage Tower and the condition Konoha was currently in after the wake of their latest war. But what puzzled her the most was how he was taking this news all in. He was taking it in well, almost too well.

"Naruto… why are you so… happy about it?"

His happy antics came to a sudden halt and the look of guilt replaced his normally cheerful expression. "Well…" He sighs. "Okay, you're right, it's something I shouldn't be so happy about. I feel guilty about it now that I think about it."

Now she was the one that was confused. "What do you mean?"

"Sakura-chan… just how far back are we in the past anyway? How many years?"

She was prepared for this question; she expected this one out of him sooner or later. "Today is June 4th, the twenty-third year in the First Reign of the Third Hokage, so… exactly thirty years before you were imprisoned, Naruto."

"How many years before the Kyuubi attacked?"

She certainly wasn't prepared for _that _one. It took her a while to muster the courage to answer him. "…Fifteen years." She finally said. "Naruto, why-"

"Fifteen years." He repeated after her, interrupting her mid-sentence. "Fifteen years before the Kyuubi… then that means the outside world… doesn't know what the Kyuubi is, right?"

She was now beginning to understand what he was saying. Right now Konoha was a village at war, but at the same time, the village as a whole was unaware of a certain important detail that had haunted Naruto throughout his previous life. Konoha right now had no knowledge of the tailed beasts nor the horrors it unleashes. A Konoha village that had no knowledge of the nine-tailed demon fox was like a dream come true for Naruto.

But life, like all things in general, was just not fair.

* * *

Hyuuga Sen, a father of three, the widower of one, the Fifth Generation Leader of the Konoha Village's noble Hyuuga Clan was currently not in his best of moods. The reason attributed to his current irritated mood, actually, was standing right in front of him. A young man, aged fourteen, intelligent and strong, he was Sen's one and only pride and joy.

Hyuuga Hiashi. His son.

But right now, whatever pride he felt for his son was cast away in favor of his current mood. Irritation. Irritation and disappointment. Disturbing him in his sleep in his chambers was one thing, but this was a different matter altogether.

"Hiashi… I thought I knew you better than that." Sen said, sighing. Pushing away the comfort his futon mattress offered him, his hands then reached out for the violet blanket draped across the decorated folding screen so he could cover his bare shoulders. Sitting cross-legged on top of the now-sheetless futon mattress, he then turned back to Hiashi. "Do not make me repeat myself."

Standing beyond the open shouji doors, his son stood in the dark hallways still clad in the dirty drabs of the standard Chuunin uniform, the Konoha forehead protector tied proudly around his neck. He was staring at Sen with hard eyes. "Father…"

"Do _not _use that tone with me, Hiashi." Sen snapped, snapping his fingers as he did so. "My decision is final, and you should know that better than anyone else. You protest would not change a thing."

"She is but a _child!"_ Hiashi protested almost immediately. "Committing Setsuka to the war front is-"

"Enough with that foolish attitude. She is not being committed to the war front. I have only assigned her to a mundane task in helping the village clean up the Hokage Tower ruins."

"There are still Mist-nins roaming around the village, Father."

"You are being too overprotective of her, Hiashi."

"It's still too dangerous. You talk as if her life is expendable."

"Her life _is _expendable."

"How can you be so cruel to your own flesh and blood! She is my sister! She's… she's your _daughter!_ "

"She is the very reason why Masaki – your Mother – is dead, Hiashi."

"I can't believe you're still upset over that." Hiashi said, exasperated. "Mother's death giving birth to Setsuka was an accident. If you want someone to blame, you should blame the doctors that operated on her! Not your own daughter!"

"Setsuka is no longer my daughter."

"…_What?" _

"She is a member of the Branch house now."

First, there was silence. Then, as expected, next came the denial. "…No. Father… you didn't…"

"Don't sound so surprised, you knew this day was going to come sooner or later. I figured it would be much less of a hassle to mark her with the caged bird seal when you were away with your reconnaissance mission. It was a small miscalculation on my part when the Hidden Mist invaded our village at that precise moment of sealing, though. The end result, as you are now aware, is this – you have come back home too early to take this news in rationally. But what is done is done, Hiashi. She is a Branch house member now, and nothing you do will ever change that fact."

Hiashi spoke in tatters, sounding as if he didn't want to believe. "…I can't believe you actually marked her with the caged bird seal... she… Setsuka was only _six years old!"_

"Then may I remind you, Hiashi, that Hizashi was three when he received his?"

Hiashi's rebelling attitude ceased almost immediately when Sen reminded him of when his younger twin brother received the seal. Closing his eyes and sighing again, Sen shifted his legs around a little before he spoke to his son again. "You have been a thorn in my side for the longest time when it came to the issue of marking Setsuka with the caged bird seal, but marking a younger sibling with the caged bird seal and demoting them into the ranks of the Branch house is the law of this clan. The tradition is the very reason why the Hyuuga clan has survived until now, Hiashi, and it is your duty to continue that tradition. You are the most perfect son I could've ever asked for otherwise, but your overprotective attitude of Setsuka disappoints me. I have been generous in delaying her ritual, but this charade has gone on long enough. It is about time you become more accepting to your clan's duties. Do you understand?"

Hiashi did not answer.

"Do you _understand _me, Hiashi?"

"…Yes, Father."

"Hmph. Very well, as long as you are accepting to the situation, then I have no complaints. Do you have anything else you want to report to me?"

"…No."

"Then leave me be. I was sleeping before you decided to interrupt me in this rude fashion."

"My apologizes."

"Forget it. Just leave me be."

This time Hiashi said nothing as he shut the shouji doors quietly in front of him. The sound of fading footsteps echoed across the polished hallways until it faded into nothingness.

_Teenagers. As if the Hidden Mist invading the village wasn't bad enough, now I have to deal with this. _

Blowing out the candlelight and allowing the room to return itself into the comforting darkness once more, Sen shook his head to clear the sense of disappointment slowly filling his mind as he leaned his body back to rest. Easing himself over the spacious futon mattress, he tried to relax as much as he could so his body would accommodate itself accordingly to the alluring sleep. He was going to need it, especially so on a night like this.

What a long, conflicted, and frustrating midsummer night this turned out to be.

* * *

Something remarkable was happening in the Hyuuga clan compounds that night, but not in the sense that Sen, the Fifth Generation Leader of the Hyuuga clan was arguing with Hiashi, his eldest son and his eventual successor. Although these arguments didn't happen very often, it happened often enough so the rest of the clan servants knew better than to interrupt the two in the middle of such arguments. This was especially so because, for one, if one were stupid enough to interrupt their conversation – or god forbid, tried to eavesdrop – the end result was not pretty. Although Hiashi was kind and generally dismissed such incidents with a smile, Sen on the other hand was certainly not as merciful. If you were a servant working in the Hyuuga manor and you interrupted them or were caught eavesdropping, you better pray that you still have a relative somewhere in the near vicinity that was willing to feed another mouth. Most were thrown out of the manor with nothing but the clothes on their backs. And as for the second, and the probably most potent reason, was that both of them were proficient in the use of what is rumored to be one of the strongest bloodline limits known to man – the Byakugan – which allowed each of them to possesses near-360 degree vision. Any gossip-loving servant that was stupid enough to try eavesdropping would've been caught in an instant.

Of course, the reputation of Sen throwing out servants of such scandalous behavior was famous among all of Konoha, and, naturally, not one servant living and working under the Hyuuga roof was unaware of their master's policy when it came to such matters. So it was quite remarkable to think that one such servant, hired by the Hyuuga house as a junior attendant just this spring was brave enough to actually try. But what set this attempt apart from the others before her was that she remained unnoticed by neither Sen nor Hiashi throughout their entire conversation.

After holding her breath for god knows how long, the female servant was relieved to see the faint candlelight in her master's bedroom finally disappear. Quietly dropping the simple genjutsu she conjured up around her dark image, she slowly moved away from the wall careful not to make even the smallest of sounds. She now needed to get the hell out of here as fast as she could so she could return to her assigned quarters before anyone else noticed her absence.

The main reason why the other servants were caught eavesdropping on their master's conversation before her was because not one of them bothered to hide themselves well. Most of the servants working under the Hyuuga manor were simple civilians, the only exceptions perhaps the guards stationed around the manor walls. So, naturally, any gossip-loving servant trying to eavesdrop on the two's conversation held no knowledge of ninja arts, much less simple concealment. The Byakugan was a powerful tool that allowed the wielder grand vision, but unless their bloodline limit was actually activated or the user wasn't focused on a particular area they were unable to see past even simple genjutsu. This particular servant was different from the others in the regard that she knew several basic genjutsus for simple concealment, and knew of this small flaw within the Byakugan bloodline that allowed her to actually eavesdrop on them without being caught.

She may be young – only six years old – but she was no fool. She was of course aware of the risks in the event of her exposure (probably thrown out immediately, and probably without any clothes, either), and she wasn't stupid enough to think that she could get away with this indefinitely. In fact, this has been her third successful try, and she was beginning to think that she shouldn't be trying such foolish acts any longer, especially knowing the consequences of her actions. Getting fired here meant losing her only chance at a job and her only chance for a decent future for herself and her little sister. The Hyuugas were generous enough in picking them up off the streets of Konoha after the fall of their clan, offering her and her two-year old sister a place to stay and a chance for a new life. Besides, the only reason why she was even doing this was because of an idiotic crush. She sighed, now walking along the dark hallways at a brisk pace now that she put some good distance between herself and Master Sen's sleeping chambers. Now all she had to do was for her to quietly tiptoe back to her servant quarters and pretend like nothing's happened…

A hand grasped her shoulder from behind. "Not the most beautiful night for a walk, is it?"

"EEP!"

Jumping at least a feet into the air, she quickly spun around to see who she was being spoken to only to collide face first into the knees of the said person. Painfully landing on her rear and rubbing her nose, she looked up and saw, to her horror, the other son of Hyuuga Sen. Hyuuga Hizashi.

"Hi-Hizashi-sama! What are you-"

The taller man crouched down and cupped her mouth with his hand, silencing her immediately. "Quiet now, you wouldn't want to get caught now after going through all that trouble of eavesdropping on the two, right?"

Busted. She had been focusing too much of her attention on trying not to get caught by her two masters while they were arguing with each other, and instead was careless in expanding her attention outwards. Tears were starting to streak out of her eyes, and her body couldn't stop shaking. It was all over now. She had been caught red handed by none other than Hyuuga Hizashi. What was she going to tell her little sister? That they have to live in the streets again just because she was doing stupid stupid like spying on her crush? Their bonds as siblings will no doubt be forever strained, especially after a betrayal like this… or rather, how were they going to survive living in the streets again? Orphans living on the streets were never looked on kindly, and with the village now in the midst of war, it made things only worse. One foolish action had doomed both her and her sister's future forever.

Tearing the hand away from her mouth, she was instantly on her knees and bowed down so deep her forehead was touching the hallway floors. "Please… please forgive me Hizashi-sama! I will never do it again! Please don't tell Sen-sama or Hiashi-sama about this! I will do anything, so please…!"

"Don't worry, I won't tell my brother or my father about this."

"Eh…?" Those were words she certainly wasn't expecting to hear. Shocked and confused, she looked up from her bow to see Hizashi smiling softly upon her.

"It's all for the sake of my brother, right?" He asked in a reassuring tone.

Her face turned scarlet red almost instantly.

Noticing her blush, Hizashi chuckled. "I figured as much."

"I-I was only worried for him, Hizashi-sama." She explained, stuttering. "Ever since… ever since Hiashi-sama rescued my sister and I from the streets, I… I owe him a large debt, so... so I thought... the least I could do was to be aware of his troubles... to help him as much as I can… and, and I was happy! I was happy to find out that he had returned from his mission safely, so I…!"

Hizashi smiled. "I understand. Don't worry; we'll keep this a secret between you and me okay? Father won't be happy to know that I've been eavesdropping on them either, anyway."

"Eh?"

"Tell you what. I'll go to Hiashi-niisan's room and try to cheer him up for you. How does that sound?"

She couldn't help but feel astonished by his offer. "B-But Hizashi-sama… that's…!"

"Don't worry about it, Mikoto-chan, in fact, I insist. I was on my way to his room anyway. Now you go back to your quarters and get as much sleep as you can. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow."

Noticing the slight emphasis on Hizashi's words when he told her to go to bed, she knew immediately it was futile to argue the point. Bowing once more in front of him, she broke into a small run. Brushing her long black strands of hair away from her face, she was crying tears of relief. She wasn't going to get fired! She was still going to be working in the same house with her precious Hiashi-sama! She was skipping in joy by the time she reached her room. Closing the door quietly behind her lest she wake the other servants up, she dived into her blankets and drifted off into sleep almost immediately.

Haruno Mikoto was going to dream good dreams that night.

_Hell yeah! _

* * *

He was about to go to sleep himself when a light tap announced the presence of the visitor. After all, he had been hastily recalled from his to-be long-term reconnaissance mission and further exhausted himself when he stormed into his Father's room and argued with him after learning that his little sister had been sent out of the house to help the excavation process in cleaning up the Hokage Tower ruins. Had he had a little more strength left in him he would've disregarded his Father's subtle order of not to take off after his sister, but too many things happened all at once this day and sleep was threatening to take him over.

Meeting this visitor, however, was something he couldn't shy away from, even from sleep. To be brutally honest, Hiashi wasn't practically keen on seeing this visitor, but he knew what must be done.

He was his brother, after all.

"Come in."

Hizashi wasted no time in letting himself inside his room. His manners were proper when he opened and closed the shouji doors in front and behind him and situated himself in the room in such a way that symbolized his submissive position. Kneeling down in front of Hiashi, Hizashi sat there, motionless, waiting for Hiashi's signal. It was the traditional way of a Branch house member greeting in a member of the Main house. "At ease." Hiashi said and he too sat himself on the _zabuton _pillow. "What is it you wanted, Hizashi?"

Hizashi's serious expression dissolved as he broke into an easy grin. "Niisan, you're just too kind for your own good sometimes."

"…I don't know what you're talking about." Hiashi replied monotonously.

"Oh come on now. I know you overheard the conversation between Mikoto-chan and myself. We're twins, Hiashi-niisan, I know you like the back of my hand. And, consequently, that same principle should apply to you as well."

"You purposely talked to her so I will overhear."

"Precisely."

"Look, if you're angry with her, then don't be. She only acted on her best of intentions. She really looks up to you, you know?"

"…I'm aware."

"If you want someone to blame, then blame me instead."

"Tell Mikoto to make sure she doesn't try anything of the sorts ever again. I will be powerless to stop Father in the event she is caught."

"Noted."

"The same applies to you as well."

The corner of Hizashi's mouth curved a little upward. "Noted."

"Is there anything else you want to inform me?"

"Yes, actually. About Setsuka."

_Here we go. _"…How is she?"

"Better than I could've ever hoped, actually. She's taken it in relatively well. She still has bandages around her forehead, though. The skin around her seal only started healing recently."

"And yourself?"

"…How'd you guess?"

"Funny. You already know the answer to that question. You just answered it ealier."

"Point. I'll be fine. The headaches started to recede since yesterday."

"You shouldn't have attempted to try something so foolish."

"If you had been in my position, wouldn't you have done the same?"

The older brother didn't reply.

"The reason why Father delayed Setsuka's sealing ritual until you left the village for an away mission was precisely because of that." Hizashi continued. "He was afraid that you would jump in and put a stop to Setsuka's sealing ritual."

"Like you did."

"I don't think Father actually expected me to try. He was quite surprised about it, actually." He chuckled. "You should've seen the look on his face when I burst into the room."

"It's no laughing matter. You could've been killed."

"Father won't kill me as long as he sees me as still useful. But Setsuka on the other hand…"

Hiashi nodded solemnly. "Father still hates her."

"He won't try anything direct." Hizashi said, trying to reassure him. "He still cares a lot for his reputation. He can't afford to have Branch house members dying left and right."

"Even though he ordered the entire Branch house, you included, to the war front?"

"At the very least Setsuka was spared."

"Okoi and Saemon were newlyweds, and they were obviously not spared from the order. I have doubts about Father caring about his reputation anymore, Hizashi."

"The passings of Juubei-san, Hyouma-san, Okoi-san and Saemon-san was indeed a tragedy, but similar scenes are occuring all over the village, Hiashi-niisan. It's a time of war now. I doubt anyone will even care."

"…Hizashi."

"Yes?"

"Have you pulled any favors and asked someone to watch over Setsuka?"

Hizashi nodded. "I did, actually. Called in an old favor. He actually was assigned to supervise the Hokage Tower excavation process, so asking him to watch over Setsuka wasn't all that difficult."

Hiashi made a face. "Don't tell me you didn't…"

"I did."

"Dan?"

"The one and only."

* * *

Barring a miracle, Tsuburaya Dan knew he was doomed.

"Hiashi and Hizashi are going to kill me."

That above statement was going to come true very soon unless he could figure out where in the seven worlds their younger sister disappeared off to. Even though he was twenty-one years old, seven years senior to Hiashi and Hizashi, the three of them were, at one point, Genin teammates. And being teammates, Dan also knew the two of them better than any other ninja among the Hidden Leaf when it came to one particular detail.

They were geniuses.

They graduated from the Ninja Academy four years earlier than the standard ninja curriculum and were elevated to Genin status in the same year when Dan himself was stuck as Genin for three previous years straight. His teammates from before had already become Chuunin (one of them being yet _another _genius), leaving him all alone, forced to being paired up with these new kids that was seven years younger than him.

At the time, it was like having a great blow dealt to his already shattered pride, but that all soon changed when he started to understand these two better. They soon became great teammates and friends, and they were the ones who encouraged him to take up again on the dream of him becoming Hokage of the Hidden Leaf someday (even though they did add sarcastically that he had his work cut out for him). Indeed, they worked together so well that they managed to pass the Chuunin exam that same year, and although they have drifted apart since then due to missions, they still met each other from time to time. Dan's only regret was that Hiashi and Hizashi were still minors and it was still illegal for them to drink alcohol. He really needed some drinking buddies.

Although Hiashi and Hizashi didn't talk about their clan that much, Dan understood how complex clan business could be and didn't bother the two about it. He guessed they only considered him a friend because he never questioned them about their clan (at least, in depth, as he had to know at least how their Byakugan worked lest they work improperly as a team), and so in return they had offered to help him become a better ninja. Sometimes, however, he wished they went easy on him because their training regime consisted of doing things that were usually way beyond his capabilities. If he didn't know any better, he may have thought that they were making fun of him by telling him to do the impossible. He did know one thing about them and their clan however. The two of them were very, _very _overprotective over their little sister.

And if they learned that she went missing under his supervision while the entire excavation crew struck break…

Oh god.

"_Where are you? Seeeetsuuuukaaaa!" _

* * *

Sakura sneezed.

"Is something the matter, Sakura-chan?"

"Nothing, Naruto. It's just… I'm not sure, but I think I'm forgetting something."

"Forgetting something?"

"Never mind, Naruto, forget what I said. It probably isn't that important anyway."

* * *

"Dan never figured out that we were making fun of him during training, right?"

"Right."

"Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?"

"Very much so, Hiashi-niisan."

"Get up Hizashi, we're going."

"Where to?"

"To the Hokage Tower ruins. I can't shake the feeling that Dan screwed up somewhere along the process."

"…Agreed."

* * *

Elsewhere, the 'other' genius ex-Genin teammate Dan was referring to earlier was not exactly having the time of his life either. Sure, compared to the other shinobi assigned miscellaneous war-aftermath duties (he pitied the ones who were assigned duties to ship dead bodies to the morgue, especially the ones who found the mangled bodies of people they once knew), he was probably among the ones that were better off. But nothing was more boring than being assigned to sentry duties.

It was quite infuriating, actually. He was a Jounin for crying out loud, has been for the past ten years since the young age of twelve, and even an accomplished shinobi at that: the twenty-two year old's fame rivaled that of the already near-legendary 'Sannin'. But instead of fighting the invading Mist-nins still roaming around the village like he wanted to, here he was – Hatake Sakumo, the ever-famed 'Konoha's White Fang', stuck on top of a rooftop doing the most boring job a ninja could ever do.

Granted, it wasn't a total loss. If any Mist-nins made his way towards his position that meant they were most likely strong enough to evade capture thus far. And if the opponent was strong, nine times out of ten, they were usually famous too. If he fought somebody strong enough to evade capture, and if they were someone famous, then that was going to be the perfect opportunity for him to improve his already impressive resume. He wasn't going to let the 'Sannin' hog all of the spotlight if he had his away. Dammit, if only duty didn't keep him here…!

"_Now now, you're not thinking of abandoning your post and going after stray Mist-nins, are you Sakumo?" _

The voice of the other reason why this whole sentry duty thing wasn't a total loss came drifting over from his earpiece. She was the voice of his childhood friend, his other ex-Genin teammate, and his lawfully wedded wife: the voice of Hatake Midori.

"Midori, you've got to let me in your secret. How come are you so proficient in reading my mind?"

Her cheerful response soon came from the other end of the radio. "_Elementary, my dear Sakumo. You're just too much of a simpleton." _

"_Hey, hey, you lovebirds cut it out now, you hear? I swear, I'm going to puke in my mask if you two keep this up." _

"_Nagi, you're such a spoilsport."_

"_A spoilsport, am I now? Kaede, we're all in the middle of an important mission here. Yes, it's boring, yes, sentry duty sucks, but nevertheless it is an important duty and it's up to us to spot any enemies that dare try leaving Konoha. You'll get your chance yet, Sakumo, so just be patient, will you? After that, you two can waste your radio frequencies acting out whatever fantasy you so choose." _

"Why, Nagi, I never knew you had this pervert side in you."

"_You wouldn't know the half of it, Sakumo. Why, just last night in bed, Nagi wanted to-" _

"_GODDAMN IT KAEDE!" _

"_Now if you two 'lovebirds'… (giggle) are done… 'arguing'… (giggle) we now have a situation on our hands." _

With Midori's warning the cheerful atmosphere shared between the team of four suddenly died and turned ice-cold. "What is it, Midori?" Sakumo asked over the small microphone attached to his headset. He brings his left hand over his earpiece so he could hear her voice better.

"_Proximity alert on Position 43-42-95-12. North-North-West… they're moving in on your location, Sakumo." _

"You say 'they'… multiple enemies?"

"_Two, a male and a female. Ready intercept course by heading into Position 44-42-96-14, ETA is estimated in forty-three seconds." _

"_Looks like you got your wish Sakumo. Good luck." _

"Thanks Nagi. Midori, got any info on them?"

"_Hang on one second… got it. Squad 14 was readying two Mist prisoner-of-wars for transfer into holding cells when the two Mist-nins broke into a sudden argument and they started resisting. Apparently they managed to knock out the entire escort squad unconscious and successfully managed to escape and are now headed towards your direction… oh, this is interesting." _

"What is it?"

"_These two Mist-nins were Mist-nins the Sannin fought and captured after they've done battle with Utono Kagerou and her master." _

"Mist-nins that fought the Sannin who in turn managed to escape? Now _that's _interesting." Sakumo's right hand drifted over to the handle of the chakra blade strapped onto his back. "This'll be a good opportunity for us to one-up the Sannin for once!"

"_They were briefly questioned by the Sannin to see if they knew of their whereabouts." _Midori continued. "_But they claimed they had no knowledge, and so the Sannin handed them over to Squad 14 so they in turn could transfer them to their holding cells. Seven seconds left, Sakumo. Be safe." _

"Nothing to worry about, Midori. These Mist-nins got nothing on me."

"_Don't get too cocky Sakumo. You still owe me dinner. Don't you dare die on me." _

Sakumo couldn't resist transmitting one last snide insult. "Like they always say, ladies first Kaede."

"_Hey!" _

Sakumo shut off his radio and drew his chakra blade from his sheath. He immediately dashed forward and spotted the two figures trying to scale the village walls almost instantly. It was night, but the moon high above provided him enough illumination for him to be able to tell the two Mist-nin's genders apart. The one that emerged out of the left side of the building was undoubtedly male while the smaller one that emerged right behind him was female.

Surprisingly, it was the female one that noticed him first. "Fuck! Of all the people we could possibly run into…! Just fucking great!" A female with an attitude, too, he noticed.

"I guess that saves me the trouble of introducing myself. Then I suppose I should enter into the cheesy speeches of doom?" Sakumo said as he carefully balanced the chakra blade in his hands in order to give them his best intimidating look. "Give up, or die."

The male Mist-nin seemed to look like he was ready to give up altogether. "Konoha's White Fang Hatake Sakumo… dammit… see? I told you this was a bad idea…"

The female, however, was having none of it. "Fuck this shit! We're going through, White Fang or not!"

"But…"

"If you want a future together with me, then we've gotta do something about this guy first!" Sakumo noticed tears in her eyes. She was trying to be brave in front of him, but was failing miserably. "Get out of our way!" The female screamed at him, drawing a kunai and charging right at him.

Sakumo sighed. "Very well, death it is."

It was a bad move on the female's part for her to recklessly charge at him like that. Sakumo only had to use a simple body flicker technique to take the female's behind and sent a crushing blow to the back of the female's head using the solid end of his chakra blade. With a sickening crack, he rendered the female Mist-nin unconscious near-instantaneously. A part of her skull must've caved in. It was unlikely she survived that.

"_Miwako! _You bastard… you _bastard!_"

He was never the one to admit it out loud, but Sakumo was a good manipulator when it came to controlling people's emotions during battle. In an instant, he had analyzed that these two were a couple of sorts, and cared quite deeply for one another despite their polar opposite personalities. Using this knowledge to his advantage, he had quickly disposed of the female in a brutal fashion in order to lure the male Mist-nin into a rage. And rage was never a good thing, especially so in the midst of a heated life-or-death battle. The cool-headed ones always came out on top in the end. Two quick body flickers and a thrust here and there, and the male Mist-nin was now bleeding profoundly from his two new fatal wounds. The Mist-nin wordlessly crumpled down into the ground and lay still next to the unmoving body of the female Mist-nin. It was all over in no less than ten seconds.

Sakumo was ready to turn his radio back on so he could inform his team on his victory when he suddenly heard the male shinobi cough.

"Guh… gah…"

"Still alive, huh…" His eyes ice-cold, Sakumo brought down the chakra blade in front of the Mist-nin's neck. "You must've dodged at the last second to avoid instant death. Quite admirable, but I'm afraid it's going to prove futile in the end. Don't worry, though. I'll ease your pain now."

"W-Wait… p-please…"

"If you're going to plead for your life, then you know I would hear none of it."

"I know you won't… **cough** …spare me… I only have… one last request…"

Sakumo contemplated this for a second, but he was quick to make up his mind. Might as well listen to what he had to say. "Go ahead. I'm listening"

"Miwako…she… **cough** …still alive…?"

"The woman?" Sakumo turned his attention back to the still female lying next to the man, and noticed to his astonishment that she was still breathing. He quickly bent down next to her and examined her, but seeing the large dent in her head he knew it was hopeless. Sakumo shook his head. "She's alive. She won't last long without medical help, though. And even if we do save her life, most likely she'll end up as just a vegetable. What are you going to have me do?"

"She's… **cough! **…pregnant…"

Sakumo froze.

"Please… keep her alive… she's going to be… a mother to… a daughter… we even decided… **cough cough** …on a name for her… her name… **cough! cough!**"

The man's pupils were starting to dilate. He was drifting off from this world at a rapid pace. Sakumo leaned over closer. "A name? Tell me quickly. I'll do my best to grant your wish."

The man smiled one last time as he breathed out his last words into Sakumo's ears. Then, ever so quietly, the man closed his eys and ceased to breath.

And thus, yet another life faded away into the fleeting darkness of this already tragic midsummer night.

* * *

It took Sakumo ten minutes for him to finally turn his radio back on. It was an astonishing amount of time for someone like him, especially so because ten minutes was all the time he needed for him to snap out of his revere. Not even his first kill gave him remorse like this, and he was beginning to hate himself for taking too much time. He pressed the button on his headset and called for his wife. "Midori?"

"_I suppose congratulations is in order? But what took you so long? I was getting worried for a second." _

"Not now, Midori. Just send me medical over here. Stat."

"_What's the matter? Are you injured?" _

"Nah, I'm fine. I need them for something else."

"_Well… okay, I'll send for one as soon as possible, but… what happened Sakumo?" _

"…It's just…"

"_What is it?" _

Sakumo looked up to the bright night sky with a sorrowing look on his face.

"War sucks, doesn't it?"

Sakumo had a feeling that he was going to remember those last words for the rest of his life.

The name.

"_**Her name is**_… _**Anko.**_

**_"Mitarashi_… _Anko_…"**

* * *

This was it, then. He was finally here. He finally comes across the dreaded wooden door of light. And this time, this was no dream. This time, it was going to be for real.

Sakura was actually against his decision of wanting to come up to the surface and out into the open world at first. She kept on insisting that there were still many things left she had to explain to him, about how Konoha was in the midst of a war and how the village wasn't particularly keen on seeing new faces emerge so suddenly, yadda yadda yadda. Indeed, he was still quite confused with a lot of things, and Nartuo was pretty sure whatever Sakura said was right. Listening to her advice was probably the smartest thing he could've done, and probably was the obvious decision to make. But not even Sakura was going to stop him from getting his first taste of freedom in what felt like ages. And from what Sakura has been telling him thus far, AND if he understood it correctly, it was quite literally ages indeed.

Another factor that contributed to his decision was when Sakura informed him that he looked not much older than she currently did in her six-year old body. She told him that it was probably due to effects of him staying down there in the underground dungeons for so long, a combination of his different aging style compounded with the effects of malnutrition that forced his body to regress in age or something complicated like that. Nevertheless, that meant that he currently looked like the exact same age as Sakura, and…

Setsuka, he corrected himself. He had a feeling that he was never going to get used to calling Sakura as Setsuka in front of everyone else. She literally pounded him into the ground of that fact, stressing how important it was to maintain balance or something, but he was still going to have to be extra careful when he called her name. He was relieved, however, when she told him he could call her Sakura as long as they were by themselvers. That was more than enough to get him to agree to the deal. All he had to do was to pretend that Sakura was under the ninja alias of Setsuka, right? No problem. It was like playing ninja, just like he did with Konohamaru corps way back then.

There was of course remorse associated with remembering all the people he knew from before – _especially _Sasuke – but to know that he'll be able to see them again cheered him up almost immediately. When he mentioned this to Sakura she again erupted into a fit of fury, telling him something along the being wholly inappropriate because it was introducing unbalance to the space-time continuum or some other whacky continuum-thingy, but all Naruto had to do to make her change her mind was in being the stubborn self he always was before. Even near-infinite time did nothing to change his personality, and he was quite proud of it.

Ah… the door… the door of light was finally opening. Together with Sakura, with endless possibilities in front of him, this was his first step into a brand new world…!

Two kunais emerged in front of their necks.

"Going somewhere, children?"

* * *

"_**Stentorian**_"

_adj – extremely loud_

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_**- Chapter Two - **_

_**-END-**_

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

Warning: Wall o' text.

Is it just me or do these Author's Notes get longer and longer after each successful update? But anyways, first things first, my most sincere apologies for the late update. Holidays quite suck. Hope this chapter makes up for it. Happy holidays, everyone!

Second, as I was reading over the reviews I got for the last chapter, I had apparently confused a heck of a lot of people on the whole timeline issue. Hopefully this chapter clears some, if not most of it up. Please tell me there are no more confused people. Please.

Third, for the sake of making the plot for Empyreal Paradox work, I had to modify a few certain important details from the canon Naruto storyline and add a few additions of my own. To name a few examples, I took the liberty of adding Dan's family name (never introduced), Mikoto's former family name before she was married (never introduced), the name of Hiashi and Hizashi's father (who I'm guessing is the old guy who appeared in Hiashi's flashback scene but we never learned of his name), and the name for Sakumo's wife (he had to have one, didn't he?).

In addition to these additions, changes were made to a few of the canon character's ages. So far in the story, the ages for Mikoto and Anko have been altered (Mikoto is now slightly younger and Anko is slightly older), and I also took the liberty of guessing Sakumo's age. This has been done for the mechanics of Empyreal Paradox's plot to work. I will make mention of these age changes as more characters are introduced later on in the story (and believe me, there are quite a lot), but as for the rest, assume they are the same ages as mentioned in the databooks. Ah, the wonders of wikipedia.

As for the semi-OC characters of Sen and Midori, since these OC's 'technically' do exist within the canon Naruto storyline (hence the reason why I call them semi-OCs)… I'm not really breaking my promise of avoiding getting the OC's into main roles, right? Hopefully they wouldn't be too hard for you readers to adjust to. Hopefully. As compensation, they wouldn't be as important as the other canon Naruto characters and will only receive smaller roles. OC's, with the exception of one (I think you can guess who already), will only continue to serve filler roles as promised (such as was the case of Nagi and Kaede in this chapter).

I think that about covers it. If I missed anything, then it's my bad.

Oh, that reminds, if I failed to reply to your review, I'm really, really sorry! My excuse is that I am a very lazy man and I'm kinda shy to answer people's reviews. Nevertheless, I appreciate every single one of them and I always read them over and over again if only for the simple reason to cheer me up when I'm down. Thank you, everyone, for your reviews. They are much appreciated, and always will be.

Till the next chapter!

- Nes Mikel

_Chapter Two, Complete, December 30th, 2006 _


	4. Efface

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_By Nes Mikel_

_Acknowledgment;_

_I herby acknowledge that the work of fiction presented here is for my own personal amusement and entertainment purposes alone. Most of the story, characters, place names and other etc stuff in this fiction are copyright Naruto, Kishimoto Masashi, Weekly Shounen Jump, and any others I might have forgot. _

_For non up-to-date readers, this fiction contains characters and events introduced post-timeskip and spoilers up to the latest Naruto manga chapters. _

_I also humbly suggest reading Garden of Sanctuary and Medusa Javelin first before reading this fiction. Although not a requirement, many things in this fiction will not make sense unless they have been read beforehand. The links to both fictions are in my profile. _

_With that said, enjoy._

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox"**_

* * *

_**- Chapter Three -**_

"_**Efface" **_

_v – to erase, to remove completely from recognition or memory_

* * *

The cloaked figure that hovered high above the Konoha Village grounds that bore witness to the entire war proceedings finally stirred when it noticed its surroundings was slowly being saturated with the smell it loved the most. Breaking its stoic silence, it slowly emerged out of a gigantic log, one of the many logs that made the enormous wall that surrounded the village. Opening its real eyes for the first time in five days to watch the scenery in front and below, the being stirred its neck to ease the stiffness associated with being fused with a solid material for an extended period of time. Granted, only the head and its associated appendages emerged out of the timeless log, but that was more than enough to allow itself to expend its senses even further than it was normally capable of, thus allowing the figure maximum intake of the smell it loved the most.

It was the smell of burning human flesh.

Well, saying that it liked the smell of burning human flesh the most would be a lie. There was one more thing the figure liked more than the taste and smell of its favourite food being cooked as a unfortunate result (or fortunate, in this case) of a burning building collapsing on top of several hapless civilians, but that will have to wait for another day. For now, its cravings had been satisfied. It would be best to retreat and become one with the log again so it could continue to observe the unfolding drama below just like it was instructed, and...

"_It's time, Zetsu." _

"_**Already?"**_ It replied out loud a few seconds after, almost like an afterthought.

"_Yes."_ The other replied to its question, this time immediately. "_There is work to be done." _

"_**Time really does 'fly' by. Get it? Just like how a real flytrap would eat an insect-" **_

"_Is that our attempt at satirical humour? If so, not only was that a poor attempt, we don't it amusing." _

"_**We do."**_

"_We are wrong." _

"_**That **__**is what we always say.**_"

An outside observer might find this self-conversation most odd, but for 'them', it was the naturalist thing in the world. To Zetsu, conversing with oneself was simply just another part of everyday life, and it accepted itself the same way humankind accepts how the sun comes up in the morning and comes down at night. It should be noted, however, that there are always, _always _exceptions to everything, no matter how concrete something seemed. Just like how the sun never sets or never rises in the Polar Regions during certain specific seasons, Zetsu too was an exception.

Zetsu looked human, talked human, but Zetsu itself was no longer among humankind.

"_**If our eating habits are any indicator, that is." **_

"_Were we reading our own minds again?" _

"_**What a strange question. We are we. Of course we were." **_

"_We sometimes forget that we are one. It is unsettling." _

"_**It is**__** not like we can do anything about it." **_

"_That is why we said it is unsettling."_

Zetsu's normally expressionless face shifted as the dark side of its face crooked into a mockery of a grin. "_**How long do we reckon our task is going to take?" **_

"_We've discussed this before. They have told us we will take three days to prepare if we start now." _

"_**That long? No wonder they instructed us for chastity. It was all for this moment, are we right?" **_

Zetsu ignored itself. "_Are we satisfied with inhaling the aroma of what we chastity from? If so, we are to begin, starting right now." _

"_**We're no fun." **_

"_We know." _

Before it could mouth another word protest to itself, Zetsu's head already sunk back into the solid wood.

Only the silence of the still-raging war remained about.

* * *

The henge'd Utono Kagerou instinctively flinched when her empathetic abilities alerted her of yet another casualty among the ranks of her fellow comrades. And this time, it was one that she actually recognized too.

"Who is it this time, Kagerou?"

Her master, of course, was not the one to miss such a flinch.

God, she _hated _this ability.

"Takagi." She spat out the name as if he were venom itself, avoiding her master's cold gaze, gritting her teeth as she did so. "He's dead. Miwako's been hit too... she's been rendered comatose."

"The Mitarashi heir and her husband. Your former teammates."

"I didn't need to be reminded the connection I had with those two weaklings."

Her master chuckled darkly. "I find it admirable. They were your former teammates, yet not only did you not lift a finger to help them, but instead you used them, suggesting to me that we use them as scapegoats to cover our escape from the Sannin. And am I correct to assume they just now attempted to escape and they failed?"

There was a brief pause before Kagerou gave her master his answer. "No reason they would be rendered... _immobile _by Konoha nins otherwise, Master. As foolish as it might sound, Konoha does follow the international rules when it comes to prisoners of war. Foolish if you ask me. It's just another proof of their idiocy."

"Oh yeah? If we're so idiotic, then why were we able to kick your asses back to Mist so easily?"

Kagerou's eyes widened slightly when the Hyuuga girl she held captive with her kunai suddenly talked back. Her surprise faded away and a sinister sneer replaced her face when she saw the girl's half-turned head, staring up Kagerou with determination in her eyes despite the kunai pushed up against her slender neck. Determined she may be, Kagerou's empathy told her of the hint of fright the girl held deep within. She was only being brave. How cute.

"So you saw through our disguise." Her master commented as he and she both cancelled their henge technique to reveal their true forms. "The Byakugan your clan possesses is indeed worthy of admiration."

The girl appeared not to be fazed in the slightest. "Even a halfwit could figure out that you're no Konoha nin with the way you two talk." The girl shot back.

"You've got spunk, girl. I'll give you that." Kagerou told her. "But I suggest you watch your attitude in front of my Master!" With her free hand she grabbed the back of the girl's head and tugged her hair back sharply. The girl screamed a painful yelp as she lost her balance and fell backwards, or at least tried to. Her pink hair was the only thing that was saving her from falling down completely.

"Sakura-chan!"

In a moment of carelessness, something that until now Kagerou thought was impossible to extract out of her master, the boy successfully swatted away the kunai that held him captive away from her master's hand and proceeded to rush against Kagerou in a foolish attempt to rescue the girl. Kagerou's shock of seeing her master caught by surprise quickly eroded away in favour of yet another sly smile as she quickly readied herself for what she was sure would be a useless attack. So the kid managed to shake her master off by catching him in surprise. But so what? She's seen stranger things than her master getting caught off guard throughout her years as an elite apprentice of the Hidden Mist's Seven Swordsmen. Kagerou wasn't even worried in the slightest bit. After all, what can a kid like he do?

"No! Stop! Don't do anything!"

Despite all the pain the girl was suffering through, she must've seen her would-be rescuer out of the corner of her eye as she suddenly cried out a warning. The girl's attempts were temporarily successful as the boy listened to her pleas and stopped dead in his tracks.

"But Sakura-chan..." He started to protest.

"No! Listen to me Na-"

But of course, the blond-haired boy would hear none of it. "Like hell I will!"

Kagerou sighed. How predictable.

_Oh well. _She thought. _So be it. _

Hitting a pressure point in the girl's neck, Kagerou let go of the now-unconscious girl's hair and allowed her to drop to the ground and moved in to intercept the boy, who by now appeared to be thoroughly pissed off. "You bitch!" He shouted as he took a wild swing at her. "What did you do to Sakura-chan!"

As Kagerou easily dodged the punch the kid threw at her, she wondered for a brief moment what these two children were doing in what appeared to be the basement of the Hokage Tower ruins. The girl she could understand – she was a Hyuuga, and from what she could deduct from the conversation she overheard from the Sannin, the girl was here to help the rescue workers search and dig up bodies trapped underneath the rubble. But the boy, what was he doing here? Was he a survivor she just now saved? Was that why he appeared to be wearing nothing but the loose yukata which looked as if it originally belonged to the girl? But if so, why was he naked in the first place?

But those questions faded away when she sidestepped another punch, this one forcing her to pay at least a bit of attention. Deciding to be a little generous as her playful mood started to kick in, she gave the boy the answer to his earlier question. "Chill, kid. I only knocked her out. I can't play around with you if I have to drag around a screaming little girl in my arms, now would I?"

Kagerou's empathy told her that her comment only served to piss off the boy even more, a fact that was further reinforced when she dodged another punch that was swung in a bigger arc than the last. _This kid really _is _predictable._ Kagerou thought happily. _This is going to be fun! _

"Is this really necessary?"

She faked a startled look as she continued to dodge the flurry of attacks. "Master, can't a girl have a little fun?"

"Underground we may be, that still does not change the fact that we are surrounded by hostile enemies." Her master replied, not sounding all that happy. "We may have slipped past the all the rescue workers working around the Hokage Tower to locate this Hyuuga girl, but it will only be a matter of time when they notice the girl has gone missing. We should get on with the plan as soon as possible."

"Think of it as releasing all that pent-up stress I built up until now, Master. I'll be a good girl later and get us out of here like we originally planned. Pretty please? Besides, he's just a kid. What can he do?"

It was her master's turn to sigh this time. "Don't make too much noise."

Kagerou flashed him one of her best smiles.

* * *

"S-Sir! You can't! Sen-sama is resting, and-"

"Quiet. I'll meet the bastard whenever I want, for _whatever_ I want. Get out of my way, _servant._"

The head of the Hyuuga house was just on the verge of drifting off into comfortable sleep when another visitor found himself in front of his room yet again. But unlike his previous visitor – Hiashi – this one announced his presence in a much louder and violent fashion. Sen pushed the blankets off his body for the second time this night and sat up and turned to the entrance of his room, where through the paper shouji doors he saw the silhouette of both his guest and servant, the shadows cast by the pale moon glowing faintly outside. He noticed that the servant was trying her damnedest hard to not let this visitor get into his room by tugging hard on the guest's sleeve which Sen was, to say the least, impressed. For a mere child to stand up against a full grown man like that, she was quite courageous.

But Sen also knew her struggles will prove futile soon enough. That man was way out of her league. Sighing quietly, Sen quietly stood and as he reached for his nightgown he called out to his servant outside. "It's all right, Mikoto. Let him in."

Sen could see Mikoto's head snap up to attention at the sound of his voice. "S-Sen-sama? Are you-"

"I'm awake now. Let go of his sleeve, Mikoto, and let him in."

Reluctantly releasing her hold on the man's sleeve, Mikoto bowed once towards the door. "Y-Yes sir…" She then got on her knees and opened the shouji door elegantly to the side to reveal the man she had been struggling with just a second ago.

The man did _not _look pleased.

"To what pleasure do I owe you this visit?" Sen asked.

Without a word, the man walked right up to where Sen stood and punched him right in the face. Sen could hear Mikoto's surprised gasp in the background and was about to caution her not to interfere, but the man solved that problem for him when he tripped up the little girl and stomped her on the back when she tried to intervene, her painful yelp her only reward for trying to help. The man then grasped the hem of his nightgown and dragged his face close to his so they stared each other eye to eye, blazing red against cold white.

After a tense few seconds of silence, the man finally spat out his words. "You fucking _barbarian._"

Sen was beginning to think that perhaps sending every single member of the branch house to the war front wasn't such a good idea after all. He couldn't count on the main house people to help him out of this one for sure, anyway. The cowards.

"And I see that you still believe that violence solves everything." Sen replied calmly, acting as if he didn't practically care. "I'm surprised the guards even let you in."

"They're having a nice chat with a good ol' buddy of mine. Name's dirt. Remember him?"

"I figured as much." Sen's eyes then drifted downwards, towards the whimpering Mikoto who was silently crying underneath the man's feet. "I ask that you let her go. She is uninvolved."

The man snorted, almost on the verge of a laugh. "Hah! And since when did you start caring for your servants? I heard you threw another one out just three days ago for spilling tea in front of you."

"She was also a gossip, as you can see from how quickly that news spread and exaggerated. The tea was simply the last straw." Sen's eyes drifted back towards the man's angry stare. "Let her go, Kazuki."

Uchiha Kazuki said nothing as the tall, dark-haired man let go of both Sen's collar and his foothold over Mikoto. A fearful look on her face, the tear-stricken Mikoto quickly crawled away from the violent Kazuki, and as soon as she got back on her own two feet, she broke into a run to escape the wrath of the present-day leader of the Uchiha clan.

"And you call me a barbarian." Sen said after he saw her gone.

"Pfft, it's not like I injured her or anything. All I did was taught her not to mess with me."

"Masaki will be most displeased if she saw you for what you are today."

Sen did not resist when Kazuki slammed him into the wall.

"Don't you fucking _dare _mention her name in vain! You have no right!"

"She is – _was_ my wife. I believe that's more than enough qualification. Whereas you, on the other hand…"

"Finish that sentence and I'll fucking kill you."

Sen continued to remain emotionless and unimpressed. "Release me." He demanded coldly.

"Give me one reason why the hell I should." Kazuki snapped.

"I could list a dozens of reasons for why you should release me. Where would you like me to start?"

Sen noticed how Kazuki's facial expressions turned from anger into disgust, an indicator telling him that his resolve was fluttering about slightly. Instead of coming back with his usual barrage of insults, "Just try me." was all Kazuki said instead.

Sen decided to start it simple. "It is a time of war. Protecting our village takes first priority."

"Don't make me laugh. All you did was hand out death sentences to your branch house members as you comfortably slept your butt off. 'sides, the Mist have turned tail and ran. The village is secure enough for me to come over so I can kick your ass for what you've done."

"Not only have you assaulted the guards guarding the clan mansion, you are in direct violation of several privacy laws."

"As if I give a rat's ass. We practically own Konoha police."

"The Elder Council will not look on this incident kindly."

"Those geezers ought to be roasted and turned into barbeque pork in hell's kitchen. I doubt they have the guts to kick me off the Council anyway."

"You have no business interfering with what goes on in my family."

"I make it my fucking business." Kazuki growled as he drew his face closer to his so their noses were practically touching. "And in case your oh-so precious intelligent brain of yours forgot – and as much as I hate to admit it – we _are_ family, related by blood, cousins a million times removed. God, I wish we weren't fucking related."

"That makes two of us."

"Is that all you've got to offer in petty excuses?" Kazuki threatened. "Now if you ask me, snapping that small neck of yours sounds mighty attractive to me right now…"

A small smile on his lips, Sen gave Kazuki his answer.

"It's late."

Kazuki did not look impressed.

"You're fucking kidding me. Is that the best you can come up with?"

"Your wife must be worried sick over you."

Kazuki's deathly hold on Sen's neck suddenly went stiff.

"You of all people should know it's not wise to keep Kokone waiting." Sen continued, fully aware of what he was saying was tearing Kazuki up inside. "Especially now that you've got two children to look after… what were their names again? I remember Fugaku, but the name of your little girl always escapes me…"

"You bastard…"

"I don't recall you daughter having a name quite like that."

Uchiha Kazuki's entire body was shaking in fury by now. "...You… fucking… sonnova..."

"Will you let me go now?"

Kazuki reluctantly released his hold over Sen and took a step backwards. "Don't you dare think I'm finished with you, you hear me?"

"Oh, I hear you." Sen answered him as he started to readjust his nightgown. "I have already long ago accepted this as a never-changing fact of life until the day comes where one of us is dead."

"You first."

"Let's hope so."

There was another tense moment of stillness as the two men, respective leaders of the two strongest bloodline limit clans that took residence in Konoha Village contemplated what their next words were going to be. There was a lot to be said between the former two best friends, but throughout their years of friendship and their eventual separation, the two of them had reached a point of understanding where exchanging words was almost unnecessary.

It was Kazuki that spoke first. "Masaki never would've chosen you." He spat his words out distastefully. "If only she hadn't discovered that she-"

"Be careful of what you say Kazuki." Sen cautioned, rubbing the tender spots on his neck from where the Uchiha clan head grabbed him as he did so. "If Kokone ever got a wind of what you said right now, she will never forgive you."

"She already knows." He murmured. "And she accepts it."

"So she knows that you still care for Masaki. She is dead, Kazuki. Get over it."

"Because of _you_."

"No." Sen corrected him. His smile was already long gone, and what replaced it instead was a sad, cheerless look. "It was not because of me."

Only to be quickly replaced with a look of pure hatred.

"It was because of _her_."

* * *

_His voice was tight with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. _

"_How is she?"_

"_It's going to take another hour or so Sen-san." The female obstetrician in front of him replied, looking as relaxed and unruffled as one could possibly be. "Perhaps longer. The baby will arrive when she's good and ready to enter the world." _

_Sen drummed his fingers on the tatami floors, frustrated. First their daughter was three week premature and now she's taking her sweet time being born? He told himself he wouldn't be this uneasy over their daughter's birth, but the news only served to add more fuel to the cold flames of anxiety. _

"_There's nothing to do but wait." The doctor told him again. "After all, the Lady Hyuuga was pretty heavily sedated-" _

"_Sedated?" This put Sen instantly on the alarm. "Why was Masaki sedated? Who ordered this? I told you people I wanted a natural childbirth-" _

"_Uh, Sen-san? She was already sedated when your people wheeled her into the clan compounds." _

"…_That's… that's impossible!" _

"_You mean you didn't know…?" _

_Ignoring the surprised look on the doctor's face, Sen hastily stood up and headed for the door. "I'm going over." He said with his back turned. He was already out of the room before the obstetrician could even say a word. _

_Sen had set up the birthing facility for Masaki down the hall from his own room where he had been waiting. Originally he had no desire to be present during the mess and blood and pain of childbirth, especially so when he previously witnessed the unpleasant scene when his two sons were born. But when the obstetrician claimed that Masaki was heavily sedated when she was brought into the clan compounds, it alarmed him. He had to see what was going on. _

_As Sen raced down the short corridor between his room and the birthing facility, he came to the conclusion that Masaki had been doing drugs again when she was supposed to be off all of them. Unconsciously and unintentionally, anger started to boil inside of him. She promised him, for god's sake, she promised him! She promised him to stay clean while she was carrying their daughter! He already had her detoxified two… no, three times, and now it appears that she went right back onto them, pregnant or not. She was the one who told him that she wanted a daughter for crying out loud! But now? Now she apparently doesn't give a damn about their daughter anymore. Her and her damned depression. If anything were to happen to their daughter, he would never forgive her…! _

_In his frenzy, Sen had forgotten that Masaki was the only woman he had ever loved. After having drabbled with so many other women, he had fallen truly in love with Masaki. But she never loved him. He knew that. She loved that bastard Kazuki and probably still does. She's having this baby just so she can have a daughter just like Kazuki and Kokone does now, in order to appease her own selfishness. _

_He violently slid open the shouji door that lead to the birthing facility sideways, startling the green-gowned nurse sitting in the waiting room along with most of his clan relatives. The woman jumped to her feet, sloshing green tea onto the clean tatami floors. "S-Sen-sama! What are you-" _

_He walked past her, ignoring everything and everyone. _

"_I wouldn't go in there Sen-sama! There's nothing-" _

_He slid open the door the birthing room. Masaki lay on the bed, unconscious or asleep, soaked with perspiration, pale as death. Three women in green surgical gowns and masks stood to one side of the bed, a male doctor on the other. Her pale-white eyes mattered with a hint of blue were closed, and her normally straight flaming red hair was matted with sweat. Yet despite all that, she still looked so beautiful, yet so vulnerable. He fell in love with her all over again. _

_The male doctor, a burly, square-shouldered individual, came up before him and blocked his view of his wife. "You're not gowned." He pointed out from behind his mask. _

_He was telling him to get the hell out of here. _

_Annoyed, Sen went back out to the waiting room and demanded the nurse there to find him a surgical gown and a mask. In less than five minutes he was dressed, with plastic booties over his feet, a mask, gloves, and a ridiculous cap pulled down over his ears. _

_Walking back into the birthing room, he noticed that it was ominously quiet. Masaki had yet to move. The only sound in the room was the slow clicking of one of the monitors clustered around the head of the bed. Sen stared at the machines for a moment, and observed that the clicking sounds seemed to be coming from the heart monitor, counting off Masaki's heartbeats. _

_It all sounded terribly slow. _

"_Well?" He whispered to the doctor. "How is she doing?" _

_The doctor drew in a quick breath before he replied. "There are some… complications." _

"_Complications?" _

"_Her heart." The doctor explained. "The strain of labour has placed an unusually severe workload on her heart. Before you arrived, her heart kept on beating erratically, resulting in tremendous internal blood loss. We actually ran out of blood at one point since she requires Hyuuga blood, thereby limiting donors, but we've managed to keep her stable for the time being thanks to several of your clansmen waiting outside." _

"_Her heart? What about the auxiliary pump?" Being among a clan that specialized in the Jyuuken form of combat, Sen held a decent amount of knowledge when it came to know how the human body worked. _

"_It's doing its job." The cardiologist among the group of doctors said firmly from the other side of the bed. "But…" _

"_But?" _

"_There's a limit to how much workload it can carry." The doctor finished it for the cardiologist. _

"_Will she be all right? Will she get through this all right?" _

_The doctor looked away from him. _

_Sen wasn't going to let him off that easily. He grabbed the doctor's shoulder. "What about my daughter? Is she all right?" _

_The doctor looked back at him, but his eyes wavered about. "…The baby will be fine, Hyuuga-san. Once we get her out of her mother." _

_It was at that precise moment when Sen finally understood. She was going to die. Masaki was going to die. The only woman he'd ever loved in his whole life was going to die giving birth to their daughter…! "No!" He shouted as he approached the bed and grasped onto her frail hand. "Hang on to me, Masaki! Please! Please don't leave me alone…" _

"_We're doing everything we can, Hyuuga-san." The doctor said from behind as he placed a comforting hand on Sen's shoulder. "Would you like to wait outside?" _

_Sen nodded, and a medic escorted him out through the door before she hastily went back into the birthing room. The nurse in the waiting room sprang back to her feet again and offered the Hyuuga clan head a zabuton pillow to sit on. Snatching the pillow out of her hands and slumping down onto the ground with the pillow underneath, Sen barely heard the whispered words between his fellow clansmen of the main house. He was so distracted in his mind it took him a while to notice the nurse had put a steaming cup of green tea in his hand, of which he ostentatiously poured it onto the tatami floors. The nurse looked surprised, but then backed away and remained standing by the shouji doors of the birthing room when she noticed his dark mood. It was growing darker and darker with each passing moment. _

_It was the squall of a baby's first cry that finally stopped his murderous train of thoughts. _

_Sen shot to his feet. The nurse was still standing in front of the door. Sen was about to push the nurse out of his way and tear his way into the birthing room if need be, but before he could do so the door slowly slid open. The doctor came out, pulling the mask off his face, followed by a nurse that held a small bundle within her arms. He looked tired. They both did. _

"_How are they?" Sen asked. _

"…_Your daughter is fine." The doctor said, unsmiling as he gestured over to the small bundle with his chin. In it contained one of the smallest human beings he had ever seen. _

_It was his daughter. _

"_We'll run her through the usual tests in a day or so, but she appears to be normal." The doctor told him. "A little scrawny, but that's not unusual for a premature baby." _

"_And Masaki?" _

"_The Lady Hyuuga… well, ah…" _

"…_Is she all right?" _

_The doctor slowly shook his head. _

_Despair hit him at full throttle. "…Please don't tell me it's true." _

"_I'm sorry, but she didn't make it. Her heart stopped and we couldn't revive her. She had simply lost too much blood." _

_Sen gaped at the doctor. "She's dead? Masaki's dead?" _

_The doctor's eyes were avoiding his. "I'm very sorry, Hyuuga-san. We did everything that's humanly possible." _

"_I can't believe this. She killed her." Sen muttered, pointing at the bundle the nurse held. "That… that thing has taken the life of my wife away. It killed her." _

"_Hyuuga-san! It's not the baby's fault…" _

"_It killed her." Sen repeated. "It killed Masaki." _

* * *

"You're one twisted sonnva bitch, you know that?" Uchiha Kazuki repeated the same insult he threw when he and Sen first voided their friendship fourteen years ago. "You wouldn't believe how much easier it would be for me – for _all of us _if you blamed someone other than Setsuka for Masaki's death. The doctors, the drugs… hell, blame _me_ for all I care. I am, after all, responsible for a part of it."

"I cannot even if I want to."

Kazuki snorted at this predictable answer. "And why's that, huh?" He demanded. "Because you think the doctors were only doing their jobs? Because the drugs were her only means of escape from her depression? That's a load of crap and you know it. But fine, let's say those excuses hold – but what about me, huh? What about me? Why can't you simply accept me as the one to blame and not your own fucking daughter who you just carved a death seal into! For crying out loud, Setsuka's not only _your _daughter, but _Masaki's_ as well! Get that through you goddamn thick skull!"

"It is the law of the clan."

"_Bullshit! _The law of your clan states that any _second _child born from the main house will be demoted to the ranks of the branch house, and a branch house member will only have his or her caged bird seal carved in when they turn ten. The only time your clan can carve a seal earlier than that is when a member of the main house turns three, and any branch house member that's closest in age to that main house member will have his or her caged bird seal carved in and be assigned to protect that member. Hizashi was the second one born and thus was demoted to the ranks of the branch house, and when Hiashi turned three he was naturally the branch house member closest to his age and thus had the seal carved in… but Setsuka's the _third child! _She was supposed to remain a main house member!"

"You forget, Kazuki, incompetence is also a cause for demotion."

"Another load of bullcrap. That law has only been executed _once_, way back then when one of your clasmen got wasted on sake and knocked up our ancestor."

"Ahh, yes. The origin of the Uchiha Sharingan."

"We don't find our origins practically amusing either. The point _is_, Sen, I don't see how Setsuka could show incompetence of that calibre. Explain _that_."

For the first time in their conversation, Sen did not reply.

Kazuki sneered. "What, cat got your tongue?"

"The other clansmen of the main house didn't protest to my decision."

"That's because they're a bunch of pussies. They're all afraid of you."

"Afraid of me?"

"Yes. Because you've changed, Sen."

"Changed? Since when? Since I broke off your friendship with you?"

"No."

"Since when, then?"

"Since Masaki died."

Sen again remained silent.

Exhaling out his frustration, Kazuki continued. "You know what I think, Sen? You want to know why I think you're doing all this? I think it's because, deep down, you hate Masaki."

This got a reaction out of the usually emotionless Hyuuga clan head. "Me? Hate Masaki? Impossible. I still love-"

"You hate her for a lot of reasons, Sen. You hate her for the fact the she died. You hate her for the fact that she left you all alone. You hate her for the fact that she chose drugs over you. You hate her… you hate her for the fact that she was _never truly yours._"

Sen swallowed a nervous lump in his throat. "That's not tru-"

"And because you hate Masaki," Kazuki interrupted him. "You hate Setsuka too, because Setsuka reminds you _too much_ of Masaki. You see Setsuka as every impurity Masaki held within, your forever reminder that Masaki _did not love you back_. You want to _destroy _that image of Masaki so the only thing you have left of Masaki is your own perfect image of her. That is why you seek to torment Setsuka in every way possible."

"Even if what you say is true-"

"Even if what I say is true? Hah!" Kazuki was hollering in laughter. "Sen ol' buddy, I speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the goddamn truth! Damn man! It hurts doesn't it! For someone like you who continues to live in denial, the truth hurts more than anything in the goddamn fucking world!"

Gritting his teeth, Sen shot Kazuki a lethal look. "Leave. Now. You have overstayed your welcome. I will resort to force if need be."

Kazuki merely shrugged it off. "Fine. I already accomplished what I came here to do." He started to head for the door, but paused when he started to slide it open. "But remember this. I will do whatever it takes to protect Masaki's memory. I cannot change for what you are now, Sen, but if the worst should happen to Hiashi, to Hizashi, to Setsuka, to _anyone..._

"_**I will kill you."**_

He slammed the door shut.

* * *

Sen continued to stand there motionless for a full minute when a sudden sound snapped him out of his daze. Instantly activating the Byakugan, he glared at from where the sound came from.

He instantly relaxed when he saw her for what she was.

"U-Um… Sen-sama, are you all right…?"

"Mikoto. Did you not go back to your quarters?"

From behind the doors, Sen could see the girl nod apologetically. "I-I'm sorry… but I couldn't sleep after Kazuki-sama had…" She tumbled off.

It was understandable. She was only a little girl after all. "Come inside, Mikoto."

"Y-Yes sir…" She went down on her knees and slid the shouji doors open and bowed down deep. "Is… is there anything I can get you? Tea? Or perhaps another blanket…"

"How long have you been working in this house for, Mikoto?"

The sudden question seemed to startle her. "Um… two months, sir."

"Two months. And how old are you?"

"Six, sir."

_The same age._ "You had a little sister?"

"Y-Yes." She looked frightened. She was obviously not used to being in the presence of the Hyuuga clan leader. "She's two years old."

"Do you love her, Mikoto?"

"I do, sir, very much. She's… she's the only family I have left."

This made Sen curious. It was Hiashi that first brought Mikoto in to work under the Hyuuga household as a servant, and Sen had only half-heartedly listened to his son's reasoning's before he gave him the go-ahead. "What happened to the rest of your family?"

She looked troubled at the question. Sen was uncertain if she would answer, but she eventually did. "They're all dead, sir."

"I'm sorry."

"N-No, it's okay. In fact, I'm more than grateful for the Hyuuga house for taking us in after the fire."

_The fire. Ah, so she was a Haruno, then._ "It's strange." Sen said.

Mikoto looked confused. "What is, Sen-sama?"

"I've only known you for a short time, yet I feel like I can trust you more than any of my other servants."

"Um, thank you sir."

"You're very mature for your age." Sen continued. "And despite your short stay here, you are also very loyal. You tried to help me by trying to stop Kazuki, and you actually came back to check up on me after he had left when you could've stayed in your room. Were you not scared?"

"I-I was. But when I was about to fall asleep, I heard this noise outside my quarters, and… I saw Kazuki-sama, so I followed him, and, um… I just kind of acted on my own…" Mikoto bowed her head down again. "I-I'm sorry if I acted out of place, Sen-sama! I was only trying to…"

"No, it's all right." A look of contempt crossed his face. "Mikoto, let me ask you something."

"Y-Yes? What is it, Sen-sama?"

"How would you like to become a ninja?"

* * *

Despite her outward show of confidence as she continued to work feverishly in the hastily-built makeshift field hospital located in the central plaza of Konoha Village, Tsunade was frustrated beyond belief. It wasn't that things weren't going smoothly – everything was in order and the injured that were brought in were handed off to the correct specialists – but quite the opposite. It was going _too_ smoothly. And in a time of war, this meant one of two things: either they scored such an overwhelming victory over the Hidden Mist invading forces hardly anyone was injured, or the dead outnumbered the injured and there simply weren't enough patients to administer treatment to.

Tsunade had a sinking feeling it was the latter of the two cases.

Her fears were cemented further when she had to keep finding other, smaller things to do instead of administering direct medical treatments. It wasn't like she enjoyed seeing the faces of injured people, but in times like these, she certainly preferred the faces of the injured rather than the cold, unmoving bodies of the unliving.

She felt the cool summer breeze wash in through inside. Someone had opened the flap of her medical tent. "How are things, Tsunade-hime?" The particular someone asked.

Tsunade sat her pen down and rubbed her eyes. It has been a long night. "Orochimaru." She rolled up her medical report and deposited it next to the pile of scrolls sitting on top of the table. She then turned to her teammate. "Please tell me you have some good news."

"Good news?" The snaky man sat himself in a chair besides her. "I'm afraid I'm the carrier of no news. Must I have something to report to see how my teammate is doing?"

"Thanks for caring then." Tsunade said flatly as she unrolled another blank scroll before picking up her pen. "If you have nothing to report then get out. I have things to do. I thought you were going to the Hokage Tower ruins to see that Hyuuga girl you were curious about anyway?"

"I was turned back by the Chuunin in charge of the excavation. Dan I think was his name. Ring any bells?"

"Dan? Wasn't he that blond loser that ended up being teammates with Sakumo and Midori back when we were Genin? I remember him being the class clown in the Academy."

"Yes, the very same."

"And you let him turn you back?"

"There was no point in me staying there. Apparently the girl has gone missing."

"Missing?" Her pen stopped. She refocused her attention on Orochimaru. "Do you think that maybe…?"

"The possibility exists. If Utono Kagerou and her master are still inside the village, then they are most likely having trouble getting past the genjutsu wards embedded inside the Konoha walls. If they have indeed captured the Hyuuga girl, Kagerou can then use that same ability she executed against those two Mist nins we captured and find a way past the wards. The Hokage Tower ruins are not far from where we fought them last, after all."

"Pisses me off every time I think about what they did to escape." Tsunade said angrily. "Honestly though, if what you say is true, then I'm rather surprised they aren't trying to force their way past the walls, knowing what they're capable of."

"I believe they're fully aware that they'll be pursued in full force if they tried." Orochimaru offered. "And perhaps they are trying to take the girl back to the Mist as a trophy. Many are after the secrets of the Byakugan, after all."

"I guess you have a point. Who's in charge of guarding the walls?"

"Sakumo's team. A full platoon of ANBU are also stationed in the front gate when Nidaime-sama was relieved of the front guard position."

"No chance of anyone escaping past the walls by pure force, then." Tsunade sighed. "As much as I hate to do it, I guess we ought to send in a report to Sakumo's team to keep an eye out for any stray Hyuuga girls. No telling when Kagerou and her master will try to escape using the girl and her along with them."

"About that-"

"_I've already received it from Orochimaru, Tsunade." _

A sudden crackling sound alerted Tsunade of yet another visitor inside her medical tent. Well, more like an image rather than a visitor though.

"Damn it, Midori. If you keep on doing that, someone might get hurt one of those days."

"_By punching that unfortunate someone by reflex with that monstrous strength of yours? Rats. You figured it out. Looks like you managed to escape death this time, Orochimaru. I'll keep it in mind to try harder next time."_ The playful, electronic voice of Hatake Midori emanated from the flickering image of a green-haired woman in her twenties in front of them. It was the image projecting technique she was so famous for. She was Konoha's best information specialist, the 'Konoha's Unseen'.

"Your technique is impressive as always, Midori." Orochimaru complemented. "You can project an image out of thin air… gather visual and audio information from anywhere, anytime… even conveying messages across entire landscapes, as if distances mean nothing to you. Sometimes I wonder if you're even human. A ghost, perhaps."

It was true. With the exception of Sakumo and perhaps the two Hokages, not one Konoha ninja had ever seen Hakate Midori in person, not even the Sannin themselves. For all Tsunade knew, the image of 'Hakate Midori' she was so used to seeing could've been fake. She was one person that certainly deserved the title of the 'Unseen'.

"_I'll take that as a complement Orochimaru. But I can assure you two that I am a living, breathing, one hundred percent flesh and blood human being." _Midori's image told them. "_But since we're not here to discuss the validity of my existence, let's get down to business." _

"What do you want?"

"_Straight to the point? I like that in you, Tsunade." _

"Can it Midori." She wasn't all too happy with being friendly with a member of their rival group.

"_Very well.__Now, 'as much as I hate to do it'…" _

Tsunade groaned at the sarcasm when Midori repeated what Tsunade herself had said just earlier. Midori only giggled, and Orochimaru remained indifferent.

"…_I need to ask you Sannin a favour. Or, more specifically, you Tsunade." _

"Me?"

"_We kind of have a situation on our hands. Remember those two Mist nins you captured after you let Utono Kagerou and her Seven Swordsmen master escape?" _

Tsunade was starting to get ticked off. "Don't remind us."

"_Oh my, I'm so sorry. Didn't mean to hurt your pride." _

She was getting increasingly tired of her sarcasm. "I thought you were trying to ask me for a favour? Not the best way to go about that, now is it?"

"_My bad. What I'm trying to say is, well, they too actually escaped." _

"Escaped?" Orochimaru asked.

"_Mmhmm. Knocked the escort team out cold. It seems that a certain someone didn't search them for weapons all too carefully…" _

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed.

"…_But anyway, the good news is that my network grid detected their attempt, and when they tried to force their way through the walls Sakumo intercepted them and 'dealt' with them, so to speak. The bad news is that one of them turns out to be pregnant with a baby girl." _

Tsunade was beginning to see where this was going. "Did Sakumo listen to their last requests or something?"

"_Yep." _

"Why me, though?"

"_You're the only medical professional who knows how to handle an injured pregnant woman and not let the baby die who's even remotely available." _

It was true that she wasn't overtly busy at the moment. She settled into her professional mood. "What are their conditions?"

"_The father is dead. The mother's comatose; skull caved in is what Sakumo says, and he's done whatever emergency treatments he could to keep her stable, but…" _Midori's image flickered for a brief second. "_Hang on one second." _

"What's the matter?"

"_Oh, it's just Kaede requesting some 'private girl time'. I needed to expand my network grid to cover for her." _

Orochimaru looked puzzled. "Private girl time?"

"She means bathroom." Tsunade answered.

"Ah."

"_Good thing Jiraiya-kun wasn't here, hm?"_ Midori chuckled.

Tsunade forced herself to smile. "For once, I agree with you."

"Agree with what?"

_Speak of the devil. _"Hello Jiraiya." Tsunade unhappily greeted her other teammate who unceremoniously invited himself inside the medical tent.

"_Hello there Jiraiya-kun!" _

"Oh, hello there Midori-chan!" Jiraiya greeted Midori when he noticed her projected image. "You look beautiful as always!"

"She is married, Jiraiya." Orochimaru reminded him.

Jiraiya faked a hurt look. "Is there a law that doesn't allow me to praise the beauty of a beautiful maiden?"

"If I ever were to become Hokage, I would make it a law to never allow you near a female being within a fifteen meter radius." Tsunade countered.

"_You have my vote on that one!" _

"You two are so mean!"

"Why are you here, Jiraiya?" Tsunade asked.

"Why am I here? _You're_ the one who ordered me to go outside to help the rescue workers out and carry the wounded back here. I did just that. There's a bunch of them out there now, Tsunade, fifty-nine of them in total. They need you out there, Tsunade." Jiraiya then turned to Orochimaru and pointed a finger at him. "What's _he_ doing here?"

"Not now, Jiraiya." With a tired look on her face, Tsunade turned to Midori. "Sorry about this, but looks like I can't leave here for the time being. You told me that Sakumo kept the mother stable for the time being, right?"

"_That's right." _

Tsunade turned to Orochimaru. "You're free for the moment right?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose I am."

"Do me a favour and go pick this comatose mother up, will you then?" Quickly snatching a piece of paper off the desk, she scribbled a couple of notes down on the scrap piece of paper and handed it to Orochimaru. "Here's a couple of do's and don'ts when you carry her back here. Got it?"

"Very well. Where is this mother located?"

"_Position 9… er, I suppose you wouldn't understand my network grid positioning system. I guess I will guide you there then." _

"Then we should leave now."

Midori's image nodded in agreement. As she and Orochimaru were about to leave the medical tent, Midori turned back and nodded her thanks. "_Thanks for this, Tsunade. I guess we owe you one." _

"Let's call it even." Tsunade smiled. "Your team is keeping an eye out for Utono Kagerou and her master for our sake after all. We help you clean up your mess, you help clean up ours. Looks even to me."

"_I guess that's true._" Midori smiled back. "_Even it is." _Midori's image then condensed into a small green ball and the ball of light flared out of the medical tent, guiding the way for Orochimaru who followed it with comparable speed.

Tsunade rose from her chair and rolled up her sleeves. "Guess there's some real work to be done now. Follow me, Jiraiya. You can actually help me-"

"Argh, dammit!" He suddenly exclaimed.

"What's the matter?"

"I forgot to ask Midori-chan if she could teach me her image projection technique!"

Tsunade sighed, not even bothering to ask Jiraiya what he was going to use the technique for. She had a good idea. She just hoped Midori was sensible enough to not teach Jiraiya that technique. She wouldn't allow the king of all perverts to invade the privacy of all Konoha women, now would she?

Or would she?

She worried for the future.

* * *

Naruto was beginning to realize that he was, to put it in extremely simple terms, out of shape. He was beginning to realize that even being able to move his body like he wanted after millennia of inactivity was a miracle in itself, but wishing for his body to move like it did before his imprisonment was just wishful thinking. He had only thrown a dozen or so punches at this lady, who he identified as a Mist ninja from her forehead protector around her neck and he was already getting tired. The only thing that kept him going now was the fury of seeing his precious Sakura-chan knocked unconscious, but that fuel too was burning up very quickly. He knew that this woman was only playing with him. It would only be a matter of time before she decided this was boring and finish him just like she had promised. This basically left him with two options.

Option number one: Run away.

That option was obviously out of the question, especially so if it meant leaving Sakura behind. He also sincerely doubted if they would let him go just like that when they made it clear they didn't want to be discovered. From what he'd gathered from what Sakura had said earlier, Konoha was currently at war with the Mist and their invading force was in full retreat. This meant that these two ninjas were trying to kidnap Sakura so they can force to her assist them in order to leave the village unnoticed.

This, however, also meant that if he could somehow find a way to gather attention to himself, it will put these two Mist nin on the disadvantage. However, that method came with a lot of other disadvantages, the most notable one being signing his death warrant. He had no interest in being dead after being this close to freedom.

Then there was option number two: Defeat them.

Even if he were at one hundred percent, Naruto sincerely doubted that he could defeat them. He may be rusty but he thought he could at the very least accurately gauge the enemy's strength, and from the three minutes he had been fighting this lady he guessed she was as strong as Haku, if not slightly stronger. He noticed that their combat styles were incredibly similar, and from the weapon pouches sown on her outfit he could tell that needles were her weapon of choice, and as if that wasn't enough she too was a Mist nin just like Haku was – well, Haku wasn't technically a Mist nin but he was trained by one, so it still counted. As he was now he didn't have a chance in hell of beating her, much less the man standing quietly in the corner who he guessed was even stronger than the woman. The only reason he had been able to beat Haku previously was because he went berserk and lost control of Kyuubi.

In fact, for the past minute or so he had been trying that very same strategy, trying to stir himself into such fury that the Kyuubi inside of him will erupt out and turn the tides of the battle. But for some reason he couldn't fathom the bastard fox continued to remain unresponsive, as if it had suddenly gone mute. He knew the Kyuubi was still inside of him – he could still feel the demon's lingering presence inside his mind after all – but no matter how loud he yelled, screamed, pleaded even, the fox remained silent in his mind.

This was _not_ looking good at all.

_Art is a bang, yeah! _

Naruto's face cringed when he suddenly remembered the playful Akatsuki man's favourite words as the woman dodged another kick he threw. Why was he remembering such things at a time like this? Was the fox trying to tell him something?

_Oh to hell with it. Might as well go with the high-risk high-return plan. _

The one advantage he knew for certain he held over these two Mist ninjas was they underestimated him. All they knew of him was that he was some half-naked six-year-old looking kid that crawled out of the Hokage Tower basement. In no way would they image he was in fact a demon container who survived through the loop of time trapped in the dungeons underneath for a near eternity and was the Hidden Leaf's Number One unpredictable ninja before his confinement in the dungeons.

Well, he'll _show them! _

Cupping his hand together and focusing everything he had into his two small hands, he was satisfied to find that his chakra was answering to his every beck and call for once as the blue ball slowly started to form in his hand.

"Eat this!" He shouted as he began to trust the concentrated ball of chakra at the shocked woman in front of him. "_Rasengan!"_

* * *

"_**Efface" **_

_v – to erase, to remove completely from recognition or memory_

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_**- Chapter Three - **_

_**-END-**_

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

Ladies and gentlemen, you have the permission to pelt this author with tomatoes and orange peels to your heart's content. After six months of inactivity, this author has finally updated his story. Yes, about time! It's about time I say!

I'M. SO. SORRY!

As for my excuse, all I can say is... computer games suck the life out of you. Don't let it steal your soul kiddies. I nearly sold mine to the devil.

All joking aside, this chapter came out very differently from what I originally intended to be, especially Naruto's little flashback of Deidara – that totally came out of nowhere. I love the little bugger and I can't help but give him some screen time, especially so when the latest manga chapters seems to be hell bent on killing him off. The only scene that came out according to plan in this chapter was, in fact, Zetsu's reintroduction into the story, and even that has been heavily altered. In the end I ended up introducing two more OC characters into the story (Kazuki and Kokone) even when I swore I would try to avoid introducing OCs into the already character-heavy world of Empyreal Paradox... but, eh, life doesn't always go according to plan. I want this story to be epic, and adding more human interaction and drama is the way to go. Of course, plot progression suffers as a result (as you can see from the fact that Naruto _still _remains underground), but… oh well? I think one of those days I'll post a link up in my author's profile listing every single character introduced/mentioned in Empyreal Paradox just so people can still keep track of who's who. I'm sure after six months of inactivity, people are going: Who the hell is Sen? (Hiashi, Hizashi, and Setsuka's father) Who the hell is Midori, a self-insert? (Sakumo's wife, and no, I'm a guy and I'm very much straight) Hell, who the hell is Dan? (He's actually canon, people) Stay tuned.

I also apologize in advance if anyone was upset over Kazuki's excessive swearing. One may think that there's no way a man with a mouth like that would never end up the leader of a clan like the Uchiha, but eh, why not I ask, why not? Might as well give them clan leaders some other personality than the traditional ice cold robots who never listen to the younger generations like they usually are, no? And in case people are confused, yes, Kazuki and Kokone are the (eventual) grandparents of Sasuke and Itachi.

As for the age old question of: "When's the next update?" the answer is "I don't know." I try to aim for at least one update per month, but, well, you see how well that went. I do love to write and I do want to see Empyreal Paradox eventually finished, but there's simply so many things to do and so little time. All I can ask is to really, don't expect anything. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Reviews, questions, comments, always welcome. I will actually try to make an effort to answer them this time around instead of shying away like I usually do.

Till the next chapter!

- Nes Mikel

_Chapter Three, Complete, June 1st, 2007_


	5. Incognitos

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_By Nes Mikel_

_Acknowledgment;_

_I herby acknowledge that the work of fiction presented here is for my own personal amusement and entertainment purposes alone. Most of the story, characters, place names and other etc stuff in this fiction are copyright Naruto, Kishimoto Masashi, Weekly Shounen Jump, and any others I might have forgot. _

_For non up-to-date readers, this fiction contains characters and events introduced post-timeskip and spoilers up to the latest Naruto manga chapters. _

_I also humbly suggest reading Garden of Sanctuary and Medusa Javelin first before reading this fiction. Although not a requirement, many things in this fiction will not make sense unless they have been read beforehand. The links to both fictions are in my profile. _

_With that said, enjoy._

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox"**_

* * *

_**- Chapter Four -**_

"_**Incognitos"**_

_n – one whose identity is disguised or concealed_

* * *

Until the incident that decimated her and her younger sister's clan, Haruno Mikoto had led a very sheltered life – and quite literally so. One may argue that the sheltered life may be one where comfort and discomfort go hand in hand, a life where one could spend immersed in comfortable wealth but trapped in the discomfort of never being able to venture outside the clan walls, but the stereotypical image did not compare to the life Mikoto led until the fall of her clan. In her case, her life consisted of being held prisoner in the basement cell of her very own home.

To understand why this was so, however, one would have to understand the history behind the Haruno clan.

In the days before the Hidden Leaf even existed, the Haruno clan was one of the original seven noble families – or eight, if you counted the Uchiha after they had separated themselves from the Hyuuga – that had settled around the land where Konoha Village stands today. During the legendary era of the First Great Ninja Wars, these eight families constantly warred with one other over the dominance of the land, threatening to tear the very existence of the recently forged Fire Country apart. The eight clans consisted of the 'Shadowbender' Nara, the 'Mindwalker' Yamanaka, the 'Titanic' Akimichi, the 'Swarmmaster' Aburame, the 'Wild' Inuzuka, the 'Seer' Hyuuga, the 'Copycat' Uchiha, and finally, the 'Firestarter' Haruno.

Indeed, the Haruno had a name fit for a clan that consisted solely of Firestarters. Their clan's name translated into 'field of spring', named after the firestarting ability of their founder where she was rumoured to be able to ignite and transform the field of battle into beautiful blossoms of rapturous fire. A clan that was proficient and famous for a wide variety of Fire Element Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, the Haruno furthered their powerful status during the era of the First Great Ninja Wars when they discovered they were on the verge of manifesting their own unique bloodline when a certain legitimate successor to the clan started to develop abilities where she could create, ignite, and control fire on a whim. It was a bloodline capable of immense destructive power, a bloodline where one could easily tip the scales in the stalemate between the eight warring clans if used correctly.

Fortunately for the other seven clans and unfortunately for the Haruno, until the two Kazama brothers Kazama Masashi and Kazama Seishi (who later became the First and Second Hokages) intervened and finally put a stop to the wars between the eight clans and united them under one banner to found the Village of the Hidden Leaf, the Haruno clan was unable to fully control their emerging bloodline ability despite their many attempts to control it. None of the girls who displayed hints of their bloodline ability survived past the age of five, unable to quell the raging fire within, eventually letting the fire consume them whole, reducing themselves to nothing but mere ashes.

It was only after the end of the First Great War when the Haruno clan discovered the method to control their bloodline ability. Afraid that one day their own bloodline might be the very catalyst of their own destruction, the Haruno clan at one point decided to start imprisoning any girls that exhibited signs of their bloodline ability and confined them into the basement cells constructed underneath the Haruno manor, isolating them away from the clan and the rest of the world. Years pass, and strangely, when the oldest of these imprisoned Haruno girls easily pass the age of five without having to succumb to self-destruction, the Haruno come to realize that imprisoning their own girls and cutting them off completely from the rest of the world was the very key to allow them to control their own bloodline limit. By throwing the girls inside prison cells, it had quieted the fire inside them, allowing precious time for their bloodline to blossom, giving the user full and total control over their abilities. The method soon became tradition and, signs of ability or not, it later became an absolute requirement for all Haruno women to go through until their first coming-of-age ceremony, which in their case was turning five years old. Equipped now with the knowledge to control their own abilities, the Haruno had the title of the most powerful clan in the Hidden Leaf within their reach.

Was the method inhuman? It most certainly was. But ironically for Mikoto and her younger sister, it was this very tradition that had saved their lives during the fall of their clan.

It shouldn't be that surprising to know that much like the Inuzuka, the Haruno was a clan ruled and dominated by their female population. This was especially true in their case because, not only was their founder female, throughout their clan history only the female half of their clan displayed magnificent proficiency over Fire Element Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. Their position was elevated further when it was discovered that only the women in their clan manifested their bloodline abilities, and when this happened – although it was a cruel way of putting it – it reduced the male population of the Haruno clan to nothing more than gene providers.

So it was only natural when seeds of dissent were slowly sown inside the minds of Haruno clan men.

Their first acts of subtle rebellion came during the Second Great Ninja Wars, after the First Hokage was assassinated by a ninja from a then-unknown village now commonly known as the Hidden Waterfall. Using the chaos of war to their advantage, the men of the Haruno clan secretly kidnapped their own female clansmen proficient in the use of their bloodline during an away mission that consisted of only her and the Haruno men. The men then falsified the report of her disappearance and instead reported her dead, successfully fooling the village and their own clan to believe that she had perished, reduced to a mere statistic in the ongoing Great War. Had the war not been so chaotic perhaps someone would've caught on that there was more to her supposed death than it seemed, sparing her and her clan from the gruesome fate they were spiralling down into. But with the all the lesser-known villages and the Greater Five involved in the spreading conflict, there was no time to be worried over a single ninja, member of a noble clan and user of a bloodline she may be.

It is unclear exactly what fate befell the kidnapped female member of the Haruno clan, but one can clearly imagine her death was far from quick and far from painless. The experiments the men of Haruno conducted in secret were possibly the most inhuman types of experiments man could possibility conduct against a fellow human being, and it continued well after the Second War drew to a close. They spared no expense, showed no mercy when it came to figuring how the bloodline of their female population worked. It was all for the sake of their goal – for them to obtain that very same ability the females used to rule over them, the manifestation of the Haruno bloodline among their male population. And they were willing to do anything to achieve it.

After decades of research and experimentation, the results were finally unveiled approximately one year ago, the day before Mikoto turned five, they day before the Haruno were to reveal their latest heir. In preparation for the ceremony, every last member of the Haruno clan were recalled into their clan compounds and the male members decided to use this opportunity to finally overturn the status quo they've been subjected for so long. It was to be a glorious day, a day of open rebellion, a day where the Haruno's latest heir, Mikoto, was meant to die, giving the Haruno no choice but to name the male member who controlled the bloodline ability their heir, a day where the men would show the Haruno women their true potential.

The experiment was a failure.

The boy they infused the firestarting abilities with turned into an uncontrollable pyromaniac, much like the Haruno girls before him back in the days when they were unable to control their own abilities. Not only did the ability consume the boy on the day of unveiling, the ability the men of the Haruno clan infused the boy with was so powerful it consumed the entire Haruno clan household in no less than a second, killing every single member of the Haruno clan who were gathered in preparation for Mikoto's inauguration ceremony. In an instant, what was rumoured to be one of the strongest clans in the country of Fire ceased to exist, consumed by the fires of their own rebellion.

The only reason Mikoto and her younger sister had survived the ordeal was because they were still trapped underneath inside the Haruno clan prison cells. The prison cell walls were constructed absolutely fireproof in case the carrier of the bloodline spun out of control like they did in the old days, preventing catastrophe just like the old members of the Haruno clan had feared. Incidentally, the prison cell meant to protect the Haruno clansmen outside ironically ended up serving the exact opposite purpose; it was these fireproof prison walls that protected Mikoto and her younger sister from certain death when the raging fire outside consumed everything and everyone in their own clan.

It should be noted here that the reason why the Inuzuka will much later choose Inuzuka Kiba as their successor instead of his older sister and legitimate heir Inuzuka Hana was precisely because of this rebellion. By naming a male member as their clan heir, they wanted to prevent the same mistakes which lead the Haruno clan to their very own destruction.

As many of us are also aware, the Hidden Leaf's orphanage system isn't exactly up to standard (as witnessed first hand by our hero Uzumaki Naruto) and, naturally, the old days fared no better. The system had failed Mikoto and her sister in more ways than one, and with their noble status nullified and their clan's wealth divided and spread among the seven remaining noble clans, they were reduced to mere beggars in the streets. Their calamity could've possibility been prevented had the retired Second and the current Third Hokage had been a little more attentive, but it was assumed that during fall of the Haruno clan every single member had perished along with the fire and, since the Haruno clan women were imprisoned in the basement cells since birth, citizenship registry did not happen until they turned five and were released from the clan prisons. So it had escaped everyone's notice that there were people, much less survivors down in the prison cells. It also didn't help when Mikoto, thinking it was strange to have nobody come down to free her despite her day of inauguration, broke out of her prison cell by melting the lock with her ability and upon witnessing the carnage in front of her, took her sister and fled the clan premises before anyone could see them.

But could one honestly blame her?

Although Mikoto was given basic education in both general knowledge and the ninja arts during her years of confinement, she was otherwise wholly ignorant of the outside world. With her clan burnt to cinders around her, the first thing that came to her innocent mind was to take her only surviving relative and flee before any other 'bad men' came to kill her and her then one-year-old sister. She had thought they were under attack. It would take nearly a year of living in the streets with her sister for Mikoto to realize that this wasn't the case. She would gather the bits and pieces of information she picked up from the streets to discover the truth behind the fall of her clan, the nullification of her clan's noble status in the Hidden Leaf, and how her clan's wealth had been pillaged by the seven remaining noble clans.

It was right then and there when Mikoto swore she would someday rebuild the Haruno clan.

With newfound resolve and her life's goal embedded firmly in her mind, Mikoto then started to actively seek out a method of employment where she could at least provide herself and her little sister a better life than what they had now. Mikoto loved her little sister dearly and knew wholeheartedly that this was in no way an ideal environment for her sister to grow up in. Her sister was young, wholly ignorant of the fate that befell their clan, and Mikoto wanted to at least provide her sister a normal life even if she couldn't rebuild the Haruno clan. Carrying her little sister in her arms, she kept on tugging the sleeves of any passer-by's telling them she was willing to do anything for food and shelter. It was a dangerous gamble – one wrong move and she could've been sold into child prostitution, which Mikoto was fully aware of and fully willing to go into if absolutely necessary. The year she had spent in the streets had turned the overly-sheltered noble house girl into a street rat that was willing to do anything to survive, equipping herself with knowledge of the back streets, trickery, even downright common-sense instincts. The knowledge that child prostitution existed was simply one of the many things she learned during her stay.

Luckily for her, Mikoto was spared from traveling down that dark road by none other than a member from one of the clans that had indirectly contributed to the stripping of her noble status. In her quest for employment she had run into Hyuuga Hiashi, and for the first time in her life she had been shown kindness in a degree she'd never known it existed before when she was unconditionally offered to work under the Hyuuga manor as a junior attendant. Between her imprisoned life and the life's she'd lived in the streets, never before had she thought she could run into such a kind man, especially so because men were the very reason that had contributed to her clan's downfall. But him… she felt that, for some inexplicable reason, she could trust Hiashi. It will take a while before she realizes that she had become smitten with the teenage Hyuuga heir. Hyuuga Hiashi had become Haruno Mikoto's first crush.

Mikoto knew, however, that working as a servant under the Hyuuga manor wouldn't contribute to her goal of rebuilding the Haruno clan. Although she had no idea how exactly she would go about in doing so, one thing she knew that would help towards the rebuilding of her clan would be to gather power and wealth, and she also knew there was one job that allowed the accumulation of both if one advanced far enough – and that was to become a ninja, a kunoichi. Her plan was to save up enough money to allow her to pay for the ninja academy admission fees while working as a servant under the Hyuuga roof, and from there she will slowly steadily rise up, and from there, maybe, just maybe, she could find the light of hope at the end of the tunnel.

So when Hyuuga Sen asked if she wished to become a ninja, what he was asking was the equivalent of asking her if she wanted an opportunity to rebuild her clan.

"A… a ninja? Me?" Mikoto had to restrain herself from jumping at the opportunity outright and instead tried her best to put up a look of doubt. She knew nothing good would come out of this if she was too hasty.

Sen smiled a tiny smile. "I will become your sponsor. What do you think? I don't think it's that bad of an offer."

"B-But… why me, Sen-sama?"

Sen's eyes softened. "You do not want to become a ninja? Strange, I thought you would be jumping at the opportunity."

Mikoto again had to restrain herself from revealing her surface emotions but she wasn't sure if she'd succeeded or not this time around. She knew she was busted however when she noticed her master started to chuckle softly. Damn, was she that obvious?

"It's not wise to underestimate these eyes." Sen said, as if reading her thoughts. "By using the Byakugan correctly, it is quite easy for us to read what another is thinking. Especially against someone as young and unschooled as you are, Mikoto."

"I-I'm sorry," She stuttered, the feeling of total defeat creeping up her spine. It was indeed not wise to underestimate this man. "I didn't mean to be rude. I just…"

"Stop. I don't wish to hear excuses. What I want to know is why…" He suddenly stopped. He looked tense.

"S-Sen-sama? What's wrong?"

"You are quite aware I dislike being disturbed." He spoke almost out of the blue. "You have put me in a foul mood."

"While I do apologize for the sudden intrusion Sen-sama," A new voice suddenly introduced itself from above them. "I felt that you had to be notified of this immediately."

Mikoto didn't even have the time to look up to see where the voice came from when the figure dropped down from the ceiling and kneeled down in front of Sen. The figure was clad in lightweight armour, a tight but sleeveless black top, spandex, and on its face, a mask Mikoto was all-too familiar with. The masked figure – a woman, Mikoto deducted, from the large, shapely bumps she saw underneath the armoured jacket – was a member of the ANBU, the elite of the elite among the Hidden Leaf forces. The spiral tattoo she saw engraved on the woman's left shoulder only made things conclusive.

Still in her subservient position, the female ANBU spoke. "Sen-sama, if you would lend me your ear for a moment…"

Sen nodded, and the female ANBU cautiously approached the Fifth Generation Leader of the Hyuuga clan. With one knee on the floor, the ANBU then cupped her hand over his Sen's ear and proceeded to whisper hushed words. Gulping down her nervousness for being in the presence of an ANBU member for the first time, Mikoto remained quiet as she could. Sen continued to nod his head up and down as the ANBU continued her report. Soon, she was finished, and backed away from Sen and kneeled down in front of him again. "Was I a… bother?" The female ANBU asked when she sneaked a glance back at Mikoto. Mikoto could barely contain her yelp of surprise.

"It is fine." Sen replied automatically. "You made the correct decision in notifying me of this. You should return before your teammates notice you missing. Your excuse won't hold for long."

"You'd be surprised, actually." The ANBU said, in a cheerful tone Mikoto never before considered an ANBU would be capable of. "By your leave, then."

Sen nodded. "You are dismissed."

The ANBU disappeared before Mikoto realized she was gone. "W-Who was that?" She asked him, bewildered.

"You are curious?"

Mikoto wasn't sure if asking him would offend Sen or not, but eventually the curiosity got the better of her. She nodded.

"Like you, she was a servant that once worked for the Hyuuga household." Sen told her, apparently not offended. "She was my personal attendant until nine years ago. I'm sure you've heard her name at least once… her name is Kaede."

She was unable to contain her shock. "Ka-Kaede? You mean 'Konoha's Silent Lily' Hasegawa Kaede-sama?"

"The very same. She is a member of the ANBU team 'Yotsuba' and teammates of three other shinobi I'm sure you're familiar with as well: 'Konoha's White Fang' Hatake Sakumo, 'Konoha's Unseen' Hatake Midori, and 'Konoha's Cyclops Fist' Kurazaka Nagi."

"Y-Yes. Like the Sannin, the members of Yotsuba are really famous after all…" Her eyes became distant. "So that was Kaede-sama…"

"Is Kaede something of an idol to you?"

Snapping out her daze, Mikoto's face flushed red in embarrassment. Tightening the fists resting on her lap, she gave Sen a squeak of "Yes." before she covered her face with her hands. "I-I can't help it, Sen-sama. She's strong, she's beautiful… she's everything I wish I could be if I could become a ninja."

"Are you saying you don't want to become a ninja?"

"No!" Mikoto shouted, quickly covering her mouth when she realized she had definitely spoken out of line this time. When Sen made no move to punish her she slowly released her hold over her own mouth and answered him meekly. "Er… I mean… yes, I do want to become a ninja, but..."

"Are you wondering why I'm offering a servant like you this opportunity?"

She nodded.

"It is because you have potential, Mikoto." He answered. "What I abhor above all else is to see potential talent like you go to waste. Like Kaede, for example. It would've been such a waste if I had let her talents rot away by letting her stay as a mere servant."

"But…"

"You disappoint me Mikoto. Do you not want to rebuild your clan?"

"Y-You knew?" So he was perfectly aware of her ambitions, yet he still wanted to help her?

"You may not be aware of this, but I was a good friend of your late mother. She, Kazuki, and I were Genin teammates back when we were children."

"I… I didn't know that."

"Consider this as my way of repayment, Mikoto." He said seriously. "Would you accept this old man's proposal? I will help you in any way I can to reclaim your clan's formal glory."

This was more than Mikoto could've ever hoped for. Her dream… her long time dream was coming true! Her first step was complete! Bowing deeply in front of the Fifth Generation Leader of the Hyuuga clan, Haruno Mikoto, the six-year-old heir of the Haruno clan pledged her undying loyalty to Hyuuga Sen in order to walk the long and winding road of rebuilding her clan.

To this, Hyuuga Sen only smiled.

The die was cast.

All he needed to do now was to set his plan in motion.

* * *

"…And what exactly do you mean by _missing_, Dan?"

Tsuburaya Dan was sincerely wishing he had a hole he could crawl into if it meant he could escape the wrath of these two severely pissed teenagers in front of him. Although a casual glance by an outside observer would argue otherwise – they certainly didn't look _that_ angry, anyway – Dan was smart enough to know better. Yes, they did look calm on the outside but in truth, they really were _that _angry in the inside.

However, even Dan had to admit that even if such a hole existed, it wouldn't do him much good given the situation he was in. Of the two teenagers, one of them held Dan up by the collar of his Chuunin uniform with his right hand and held an open palm over the right side of Dan's face with his left. This was done just in case Dan made any stupid attempts to escape. If Dan did try to escape, he knew would be rewarded with a swift and painful _jyuuken _strike to his temple which, he knew from experience, wasn't exactly the most pleasurable experience in the world. Despite being seven years their senior, Dan had truly become fearful of the wraths Hyuuga Hiashi and Hizashi could and would deliver had he screwed up.

And boy oh boy did he screw up big time this time around.

"Hiashi please, please let me go." Dan pleaded. "Threatening me like this isn't going to help me – help us find Setsuka."

"Are you sure you did everything you could, Dan?" Hizashi quietly asked from behind his twin.

He nodded meekly. "Yes Hizashi. Trust me, I asked everyone…"

Hiashi glared at him. "Everyone?"

Dan sighed. "Well okay, I admit the term 'everyone' is an exaggeration considering the number of excavation and rescue workers we have around here. But honest, I did ask around – and all I know is that when the crew struck break, Setsuka drifted off somewhere claiming she was going to get some snack or something and after that, I have no idea."

"That's all you have?" Hiashi questioned him, tightening his grasp on Dan's uniform. "You told me that the excavation crew working around the ruins last struck break two hours ago, which means she's been missing for _two hours. _Two hours, and this is all you have?"

Dan decided to try a different approach."Hiashi… look, I admit that Hizashi asked me to watch over Setsuka and all, but my original assignment was to supervise the excavation process so we could carry the Hokage Tower debris off and to find out just exactly what the purpose of these ancient underground passageways are. Setsuka came to me as a volunteer worker, so technically speaking I'm really not responsible-"

Bad choice of words. He would've been struck in his temple immediately had Dan not been saved by his attacker's younger twin brother in the nick of time. "Dan." Hizashi said, dropping Hiashi's hand and ignoring the glaring daggers his other brother was throwing him. "You have a younger sister of your own, right? What would you do if we told you that she went missing under our care? Please consider our situation."

"…Yeah, I understand. I'm sorry." Dan apologized quickly, the feeling of guilt now washing over him. "I'd do anything if Hatsune went missing too. That's why I'm doing my best to help you guys find Setsuka. But I can't just drop everything and leave to find Setsuka, y'know? I mean, can't you guys use your Byakugan to locate her? It should be easy for someone like you two, no?"

Hizashi shook his head. "There are simply too many people around here."

"Hm? Whaddya mean?"

"The Byakugan is ideal in locating individuals in places where there are many obstacles, but fewer people." Hiashi replied. "Considering Setsuka can be anywhere in the village by now, scanning each and every single individual with the Byakugan to locate her chakra signature will take too much time."

"And," Hizashi added. "Setsuka is still a child. Her chakra signature is still too weak. It makes it very hard for us to locate her." Hizashi then changed the subject. "Did you try asking any others to help you look for Setsuka, Dan?"

Dan nodded. "I did. Heck, I even enlisted the help of Orochimaru who dropped by just a few minutes ago before you two arrived. But honestly, Hiashi, Hizashi, I really should get back to work. There's stuff to do, and-"

"Indeed you do. Just what is going on?"

The three Chuunin snapped to attention at the man's gruff voice. "Nidaime-sama!" They all exclaimed at the same time, saluting their former leader.

Out of the three, Dan was the first one to recover. "I apologize. We were just in a middle of a… ah, argument."

The Second Hokage Kazama Seishi laughed hoarsely. "You don't have to speak so formerly. I am but another Konoha ninja, just like you. I ceased being your superior before all of you kids were even born for crying out loud."

"You will always be a leader to us in this village, Nidaime-sama." Hiashi replied sincerely.

Seishi shrugged his shoulders. "Sheesh, you Hyuuga brats are all the same, always so formal. I just dropped by after sweeping the village for stray Mist nins to say hi and you're all acting as if I made an official visit or something. Oh well, whatever." He then turned his attention to Dan. "You the Chuunin Monkey assigned to supervise the excavation?"

"Yes sir." Even Dan knew that the term 'Monkey' was a nickname the Second Hokage used to call the Third.

"Great. Listen, it seems that the crew in Section B unearthed another part of the underground passageways. They were looking for you back there." Seishi pointed towards the row of workers working not too far away from here. "How about you go lend them a helping hand?"

"But…" Dan snuck a weary glance at the two teens standing besides him.

"I'll watch over the others in your stead." He offered with a smile on his face, unaware of Dan's predicament. "Hell, with the Mist gone now, I'm kinda bored as is anywa-"

Kazama Seishi never got the chance to finish his sentence.

It was the sudden pulse of gigantic chakra from underground that silenced them all.

* * *

Naruto really should've known better.

After all, he had already come to the realization previously that even being able to move his body like he wanted after millennia of inactivity was already a miracle in itself, and wishing for his body to move like it did before his imprisonment was pure wishful thinking. So just exactly what was it that made him think that being able to mould chakra like he wanted after all these years would be no problems at all too?

_I really am the Hidden Leaf's Number One unpredictable ninja._ _I couldn't even predict my own stupidity. _

The Rasengan ended in failure. Not only did he attempt his attack without the assistance of a clone (of which he never succeeded in his previous life), he attempted the technique without realizing exactly how much chakra he was putting into it. After his control over the blue ball of chakra broke and the attack dissipated before it connected with the woman, he found himself immediately depleted of chakra despite his large natural reservoirs. He had hit the painful wall of chakra exhaustion.

For a brief and still second, nothing happened, the woman in front of him still too shocked at his magnificent but totally useless attempt at a counterattack. Then the tension broke like a glass shattered, and Naruto found himself pummelled face first into the dirt floors by the man who until now was quietly observing the battle between himself and the woman.

It was then when he heard Sakura's strangled shout.

"Naruto, get down!"

_I think it's a bit too late for that, Sakura-chan… _Naruto thought unenthusiastically.

* * *

Sakura had been faking unconsciousness ever since the woman thought she had knocked her out and dropped her to the ground. When the Mist woman hit her pressure point, Sakura managed to twist her neck at the last second to avoid herself from getting knocked out and continued to lie down still in hopes she could find an opening to capitalize in. Although she knew what she was doing was cruel to Naruto (for having to see her getting knocked out like that and all), Sakura knew that the only way they were getting out of this was to catch these enemies completely off guard. Surely these two underestimated them. Both Sakura and Naruto looked as if they were children after all.

The problem was, of course, that she really _was_ a child.

Sakura was really beginning to hate the fact that she had to be reincarnated as a Hyuuga in this restarted world of the past. Despite her extremely low chakra reserves due to her age, had she not lived in a clan that was full of people that possessed 360-degree vision, she was confident that she could've trained herself in secret so she could've at least reclaimed a portion of her former capabilities in both combat and chakra control. Unfortunately, with her overprotective brothers watching over her like a hawk coupled with her father's attitude towards her, Sakura was unable to train in secret at all since she was born. The only actual combat training she held since birth were spars that bordered more on tag with her brothers and the 'spars' she held against her father that bordered more on torture. Although both forms of training gave her some basic ideas about her newfound ability of _juuken _combat, none of them were going to help her in getting herself out of situations like these. Sakura wished she'd paid more attention to the training Hanabi received from Hiashi when Hanabi was still her apprentice.

A stack of regrets within, and there was nothing she could do about it now.

Even though Sakura lived to be over 70-years old and gained enough strength to achieve the ever-acclaimed Hokage title in her previous life, she was, in summary, extremely weak. Heck, she was probably worse off than she was in her Genin years, and the only advantage she held now was her brain. She was going to have to take full advantage of it if they wanted to survive.

Sakura had to admit that Naruto wasn't doing too badly during his battle against the Mist woman considering his, uh, 'hiatus' as she decided to put it. Even though it was clear the female Mist nin was only playing with him, the taijutsu skills he desperately threw against her was smooth and without waste – one can call it refined, even. Even in rage, Naruto, it seemed, was no longer the brash and wild kid that acted thoughtlessly Sakura knew from before.

She changed her mind when he tried to attempt the Rasengan and failed miserably, though.

But his attempt wasn't a total loss. Everyone in the room was surprised by the abrupt display of power Naruto had shown them all and surely someone from outside would notice the gigantic surge of chakra that pulsed outwards during his Rasengan attempt and come down to investigate. Although it was dangerous to consider letting Naruto out of here right now with the way he was ignorant of everything that was going on outside, anything was better than getting killed by these two Mist nins before they could even resurface. All she needed to do now was to hold these two off until the cavalry arrived. This was her chance. The woman let her guard down. She would get up, and…

Her body didn't move.

_Wha…? No way_…_! But I made sure she missed hitting my pressure point! _

Before she could even start to formulize theories over what was preventing her from moving her own body, Sakura noticed that the man with the gigantic sword on his back who until now had stood still had moved. He was moving in to restrain Naruto's movements…!

She shouted him a warning. "Naruto, get down!"

But the man was fast. Even before she finished her sentence the swordsman had already pummelled Naruto headfirst into the ground.

_Goddamnit!_

Although it didn't feel like she was restrained in any way, Sakura struggled against whatever bonds that were holding down. Absolutely nothing. She could move her head about slightly, but her body didn't respond to her will at all.

_Why? Why can't I move my own body? _

* * *

"_Hey Orochimaru?" _

"Hm?" With the winds blowing past him as he ran through the village in high speeds, Orochimaru nearly missed what Midori had to say. He turned to the green ball of light guiding him which subsequently projected into Hatake Midori's full body image. It was almost like having her here in person, except, of course, it was still her image guiding him along the way.

"_I've been meaning to ask you this, but… what exactly did those two do to escape from you guys?" _

"Those two?"

"_You know, Utono Kagerou and that Seven Swordsmen master__ of hers – Kuro no Hei."_ Then, with a thoughtful look on her face, she added, "_Now that I think about it, he has a funny name __don't you think?__ Both his given name and title translate to 'Black'. Black of the Black. I wonder what he's trying to prove. That he's 'darker than black', perhaps?" _

Orochimaru shrugged, as best as he could while running anyway. "Who knows? Perhaps he's trying to prove that he is something that he is not."

"_So… would you tell me?"_

"Tell you what?"

"_Sheesh, you've got some__ bad personality. You know what I mean." _

"Why do you wish to know?"

"_Well, I am__ an information specialist you know. I make it my business to know things. And it would help my team to know what they're capable of in the event we spot them trying to scale the walls." _

"You could've admitted that you were simply curious."

"_Hey!" _Midori shouted uncharacteristically, apparently taking offence. "_You really do have a bad personality, you know that?_" She shook her finger at him. "_It's no wonder Jiraiya-kun doesn't like you." _

He ignored that last part. "So you're not curious?"

"_Of course I'm curious. Why would I be asking you this otherwise?" _

"Very well." Orochimaru replied, a small, teasing, hardly-visible smile on his otherwise expressionless face. "It was Kagerou's ability that helped them escape."

"_Kagerou's, huh?" _

Orochimaru gave her a curt nod. "She wears a flower-shaped accessory in her hair. It is easily detachable, and she can throw the accessory like one does a shuriken. It can also be easily reattached even when thrown from a distance. The accessory can be transferred to any target relatively easily."

Midori was quick to catch on. "_And when the accessory sticks to the target's_ _hair, then what happens?" _

* * *

_Like a puppet with its strings cut, the target's rendered immobile. This is one time I'm thankful to have not underestimated anyone. _Kagerou thought unhappily as she eyed her white flower-shaped accessory she discreetly attached over the pink-haired girl's hair. It was an insurance policy she placed the moment she had thought she knocked the girl out unconscious. _I expected her to wake up early but to think that she avoided it completely… and to think that kid would be capable of such a technique… just who are these brats? _

"Make haste, Kagerou." Her master spoke, interrupting her thoughts. "The boy's attack had surely attracted some unwanted attention. We should get away from here as fast as possible. Carry out our original plan."

"Understood." She then eyed the boy her master was holding down in the ground. "What are you going to do with the kid?"

For a moment, her master didn't reply. It was only when her master started to unsheathe the large sword he had strapped on his back with his free hand did she become fully aware of his intentions.

"I will dispose of him." He said.

* * *

Doom was at hand, and Naruto was really beginning to despair for real. Struggling, he knew, was useless, and although he tried it anyway the only reward he got for it was being able to turn his head sideways so he could witness the man above him slowly unsheathing his sword. He was, however, thankful that he couldn't see Sakura, his view of her blocked by the man holding him down. He wasn't sure he could stomach the thought that Sakura had to see him die after being this close to freedom or seeing Sakura's tear-stricken face for that matter. In sobbing voices she continued to call his name, and time and time again she asked the two Mist nins they spare him. Her words fell on deaf ears.

Naruto sighed in his mind. _Life really is unfair. _

The blade was hovering over him now, and Sakura's pleas of mercy only grew louder. Naruto wanted to cover his ears; he wasn't sure if he could stand a second more of this. He was so close to freedom, so close to a start of a new life, only to have everything end just like that, his dreams crushed in a single instant. Cursing whatever gods that had subjected him into this cursed fate, Naruto gritted his teeth for the inevitable pain that was awaiting him when the blade would pierce his flesh. He could only hope that the Rasengan he attempted had attracted enough attention that someone would come to rescue his Sakura-chan. Silently wishing her the best of luck, Naruto slowly closed his eyes.

"…I never thought I would run into you again in a place like this, Naruto-kun." The man mumbled in barely audible volumes.

Naruto's eyes snapped back open.

_That voice…!_

"You…!"

"Please be quiet, Kagerou will hear you." The man whispered. "I will put you in a state of temporary death. This will hurt a bit, but please forgive me for what I'm about to do. I promise I will escort Sakura-san back to the Leaf safely after this is all over."

For the first time since the ordeal, Naruto recognized the sword the man was holding in his hands. His eyes went wide. That was the _Kubikiri Houchou_, the weapon that Zabuza…!

The blade came down.

"_Naaaaruuuutooo!" _

The world went black.

* * *

"_Binding someone to immobility doesn't sound that threatening." _Midori pointed out after listening to Orochimaru's explanation. "_It's pretty easy to counter. You'd only have to fight her like you were fighting against a Nara." _

"A Nara… yes, I suppose that analogy would be quite accurate." Orochimaru mused. "And in more ways than one."

"_Oh?" _

"Kagerou is also a shadow user."

"_Oh my, really? Well, I suppose it shouldn't be that surprising given the name 'Kagerou', but… maybe she's a descendant of some Nara's that went missing-nin and fled to the Hidden Mist?" _

"It's a sound theory and you are most likely correct. But if so I would guess that the Nara missing-nin she's descendant from had fled the Hidden Leaf many generations ago and their connections weak at best. Although she is a shadow user, her techniques are fundamentally different from those of the Nara."

"_How so?" _

"For one, she doesn't bend or control existing shadows like the Nara do. Rather, it is more like she becomes the shadow itself."

"_The shadow itself...? Yikes, that's a tricky opponent." _

"Indeed she was." Orochimaru agreed. "Not only can she camouflage herself extremely well, she is capable of instant teleportation between any two shadows wither it be a person or a building, and unless she solidified physical attacks do her no harm. I also suspect that she is to a certain degree empathic. She was incredibly skilled in reading our next moves."

"_And on top of that she's the apprentice of Hei, the strongest of the Mist's Seven Swordsmen huh? No wonder those two __guys__ gave you three some__ trouble. But you cornered them, right? Just what did they do to escape from you guys?" _

"Nothing fancy, really. She simply took her master by hand and teleported themselves away through the shadows."

"_But there's more to that, isn't there?" _

Orochimaru sighed. "We wouldn't have let them get away if we didn't have to deal with certain… distractions."

"_Thought so. What was this distraction? Something to do with those Mist-nins you guys captured and we intercepted, right?" _

"Yes. They were the distractions themselves."

"_So they interrupted the fight in order to let Kagerou and Hei escape?" _

"Yes and no. They didn't interrupt the fight by their own will. They were controlled."

"_Controlled? By whom? Hei or Kagerou?" _

"Kagerou. She is able to completely transform herself into a perfect copy of a person's shadow and, by attaching herself against that person and becoming that person's shadow she is able to bend any man or woman to her will."

Midori whistled a low tune. "_That's some troublesome ability. But wait, how can she attach herself to a person when people already have shadows?" _

"The flower-shaped accessory I mentioned earlier. The reason why a person would be rendered totally immobile when someone other than Kagerou has the accessory attached is because it completely erases that person's shadow. All she has to do to gain control then is to attach herself to that person."

"_I see, I see… one more thing though, Orochimaru." _

"Yes?"

"_Sakumo downed those two Mist-nins almost instantly, you know. I don't see any reason why they would be enough of a distraction to let you three allow Kagerou and Hei to escape." _

"You're correct. Ordinarily they wouldn't even have posed a problem but… I did mention that Kagerou's manipulation ability allows her to bend any man and woman to their will, yes? The problem is that, when she gains control of a person, she gains total access to their techniques and chakra reserves and she's free to use her own reserves as well. It's like fighting an enhanced Kagerou with larger chakra capacity and access to an even larger library of techniques. Until Kagerou released those two from her control they really did pose as quite the threat. We then captured them and tried interrogating them to see where they went, but… and well, you know the rest."

Midori's image made a face. "_So that means that if Kagerou takes that Hyuuga girl's body over…" _

Orochimaru nodded. "It will be equivalent of having a Kagerou that can use the Byakugan."

"_Does her ability have any weaknesses?" _Midori asked.

"Weaknesses you say? Hm…" Orochimaru gave it some thought. "I don't know if it could be called a weakness, but her manipulation ability does have one flaw. When she takes control over a person's body, the color of the person's hair also changes to match her original hair color. Coupled with the flower-shaped accessory in her hair, it makes it easy to spot who she's controlled."

"_Hair color? Is it unique?" _

"Quite so."

"_Hmm… I seemed to have misplaced the file I have on her. Ah well, might as well take this time to create another one. What color was her hair again?" _

"Blue."

* * *

Had Kagerou been aware of the conversation between Midori and Orochimaru, she would no doubt be impressed by the accurate analysis they made over her own ability. After all, every single assumption they made about her origins and her abilities had been true, from her family history to her empathic abilities she read off from the surrounding shadows. Had she been in another time and universe where the three of them were friends and engaged in friendly conversation over their own abilities, Kagerou would've added that, like the branch of the Nara clan she was descendent from long ago, her abilities bordered more on pupeteering rather than a complete takeover like the Yamanaka were capable of.

Of course, her abilities were nothing like the pupeteering certain ninjas of the Hidden Sand were proficient in. This was thanks to her proficiency in empathy – or, to put it more accurately, what she possessed was the ability to shadow read, an ability that allowed her to detect the slightest of changes in a person's shadow, thereby allowing her to read emotions. Unfortunately for her the ability was to a certain degree automatic and possessed an unnatural large range, and although she had training to keep it under control to a point, she was unable to completely shut off the shadow readings of people she'd been acquaintances with if they were in range.

She really hated her ability sometimes.

Nevertheless, it was thanks to this shadow reading that allowed Kagerou access to a person's techniques and chakra when she's control. By transforming herself into the person's shadow and attaching herself to her target, she is able to focus her empathy and read her target's deepest emotions, allowing her access to their chakra reserves, and, by reading their surface memories, their techniques as well.

Although she hadn't told anyone about it, it was this reading of a person's surface memories part she hated the most about her ability. Although only fragments of actual memories would reach her in the process of her scanning for techniques, the fragments were more than enough to disturb her deeply depending on what kind of pasts the individuals went through. More than enough the experience ended up not being pleasant and always left a bad taste in her mouth. So even though her technique of manipulation would normally grant her an overwhelming advantage over any opponent, she refrained herself from using the technique unless it was absolutely necessary.

In a way, though, she was glad the person she was taking control of this time around was a young girl who was currently weeping loudly over the boy her master had just now stabbed to death with his sword through the boy's stomach. With the girl still young and all, Kagerou for once didn't have to be so worried over so many memories. Instead the only thing Kagerou thought she had to be worried about was the raw memory of what this girl saw just now with her own two eyes. Without hesitation, Kagerou morphed her body into that of a shadow and subsequently attached herself to the girl. The girl's pink hair slowly turned into a darker shade as Kagerou slowly read off the girl's surface memories.

Then like a ton of bricks, it suddenly hit her.

_What… what is this…? _

One after another, flashes of images assaulted her and overwhelmed Kagerou completely.

"_Sasuke-kun… I love you with all my heart!" _

"_You really are annoying." _

"_Naruto… thank you…" _

"_It's a promise of a lifetime!" _

"_Tsunade-sama, please make me your apprentice!" _

"_I heard from Kakashi you were quite the skilled student." _

"_What do you think? Do you think I'm more like a woman now?" _

"_Don't worry, you haven't changed one bit!" _

"_Why gardening?" _

"_That's obvious, Sakura-chan! Flowers will remind me of you!" _

"_It's the smell of blood, isn't it?" _

_"Oh yeah, never had a chance to congratulate you on your promotion to ANBU, so grats!"_

"_You broke one of his bones in 'that' area, you know?" _

"_Hmph. That's the price of seeing me naked." _

"_N-no… you… you c-can't… mustn't…"_

"_I always did kind of like you." _

"_The Twin Emeralds?_"

"_Just like your eyes, Setsuka-san."_

"_I don't want to stop feeling like this._"

"_My job offer from two days ago is still valid, Sakura. Are you still interested?" _

Inside her own world, Kagerou clutched her head in pain.

_Make it stop… _She pleaded in her mind's eye. _Make it stop… make… it… stop…! _

But the images still continued, and continued, and continued… until…

"_Naruto… forgive me… I just… wanted to see you… one… last… ti-" _

It finally stopped. Breathing out a pained sigh of relief, Kagerou finally released the clutch over her head and looked up.

Only to come face to face with the most powerful being she had ever seen.

_**SO YOU'VE COME, AKATSUKI. **_

She screamed.

* * *

As a member of the Mist's Seven Swordsmen, Hei made sure he was always careful not to miss even the smallest of details. It was the very reason that allowed him to survive this long among the rapidly changing ranks of the Mist's Seven, and it continued to serve him well throughout his life. So when he re-sheathed his sword after 'killing' the boy below his feet, Hei was quick to notice something was going terribly wrong in his apprentice's attempt at shadow manipulation. He'd seen his apprentice's manipulation ability at work many times in the past, but this was the first time he had ever seen Kagerou's target of manipulation shake this viciously.

He approached her and shook the girl lightly. "Kagerou?"

But the girl still continued to shake even as the girl's pink hair slowly continued to turn blue. It was only when the girl's hair completely turned into Kagerou's natural shade of blue did the shaking stop. Normally, that was the sign that told Hei that Kagerou now held complete control over the girl, but…

She suddenly began to laugh.

At this, the swordsman from the Mist grew alarmed. "…Kagerou? What's wrong?" He asked his apprentice wearily.

The laughing stopped and Kagerou turned to her master with an insane smile plastered on her face.

"I understand everything now, Master." She spoke through the girl.

"_**Everything." **_

* * *

"I see three people down there, Nidaime-sama." Hiashi reported to the former leader of the village. "One of them is a dead boy. Another one of them is… a man with a large sword strapped to his back. I've identified him as a Mist nin from his forehead protector."

"That's got to be a member of the Seven Swords." Seishi commented with eyes narrowed. "It's probably Hei. If the reports are accurate he's the only one of the seven that participated in the invasion. That brat, what's he up to?" The former Second Hokage said with teeth bared. "What does he hope to accomplish by going down in the dungeons?"

"Who's the last one, Hiashi?" Dan asked from the side.

"The last one is a girl. She's… what the?" The veins around Hiashi's eyes bulged. "That's Setsuka down there!"

"Setsuka!?" Dan exclaimed. "What's she doing down there?"

Hizashi's face tightened as he too observed the scene below him using the limits of his bloodline. "I don't know Dan. But Setsuka… her chakra signature…"

The Second Hokage noticed the worried tone in Hizashi's voice. "Hmm? What's wrong?"

"Her chakra signature is… different." Hiashi finished the sentence for his brother. "That's the best description I can give, Nidaime-sama. That's our sister Setsuka down there... but… it's not her."

Dan was confused. "That doesn't make any sense. How can the girl down there be Setsuka and not Setsuka at the same time?"

"Only one way to find out." Hizashi said sternly. "Dan, guide us to the entrance."

"Uh, sure. Follow me then, it's not that far from here-"

"_**Everybody get down!" **_

Engulfed in never before seen levels of heat and light, the ground underneath them exploded violently upwards.

* * *

"_**Incognitos"**_

_n – one whose identity is disguised or concealed_

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox"**_

_**- Chapter Four -**_

_**-END-**_

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

You know, I promised myself I would do my best to reply to reviews last chapter but in the end I only got around to sending replies to about four of them. For those who didn't get any reply, I'm terribly sorry. I really have to do something about my own shyness… it makes me so happy when people review my work, but I can't seem to stomach the courage to type up a personal reply… siiiigghh… I'll do my best to answer them this time around, but if you don't get a review reply, please do understand.

But just in case I don't: To all people who have reviewed thus far, you have my unending gratitude. Thank you. You all mean the world to me.

A few things of note in this chapter: for those who haven't figured out who Mikoto's sister is yet, she is the (adoptive) mother Sakura will eventually have in the canon timeline. While I did argue to myself for some time if I should just go ahead and give her name instead of being elusive about it like I was with Hei until this chapter, in the end I decided against it. So expect her to be referred to as 'Mikoto's sister' for the rest of the story unless the manga by some fluke reveals the name of Sakura's mother in future chapters.

And just to clarify, Sakura is _not_ a carrier of the Haruno bloodline. It is revealed in the Epilogue of Medusa Javelin (Chapter 11) that Sakura "had been adopted by the Haruno clan when it was discovered that their heir could not give birth to their children". I just wanted to point this out in order to avoid any confusion one might have about Sakura's abilities.

It should also be mentioned that while some of the flashes of memories Kagerou was assaulted with are taken from the canon storyline, some of the scenes were taken from Medusa Javelin as well. If you're really bored, I suggest you check them out and try to find out which scene comes from where.

The name I gave Sakumo's ANBU Team – 'Yotsuba' – translates to 'Four Leaves' in Japanese. I couldn't continue on referring them as 'Sakumo's Team' considering that, according to the canon storyline, Sakumo rivalled the Sannin's fame during the Great Wars. So to compensate I gave them a name I found appropriate. His teammates (Midori, Kaede, Nagi) and their respective titles (the Unseen, the Silent Lily, the Cyclops Fist) are all made up by me, however. The only thing that's really canon here is the fact that Sakumo had teammates.

It's _really_ easy to miss this, but the fact that Dan has a younger sister is actually a fact mentioned at one point in the manga (and probably in the anime as well, but I'm not so sure because I don't watch the Naruto anime). If curious, read over the flashback scene Tsunade has about Dan a little more carefully. You'll find it it's there.

That's about it I think. Till the next chapter!

- Nes Mikel

_Chapter Four, Complete, June 26th, 2007_


	6. Novella

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_By Nes Mikel_

_Acknowledgment;_

_I herby acknowledge that the work of fiction presented here is for my own personal amusement and entertainment purposes alone. Most of the story, characters, place names and other etc stuff in this fiction are copyright Naruto, Kishimoto Masashi, Weekly Shounen Jump, and any others I might have forgot. _

_For non up-to-date readers, this fiction contains characters and events introduced post-timeskip and spoilers up to the latest Naruto manga chapters. _

_I also humbly suggest reading Garden of Sanctuary and Medusa Javelin first before reading this fiction. Although not a requirement, many things in this fiction will not make sense unless they have been read beforehand. The links to both fictions are in my profile. _

_With that said, enjoy._

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox"**_

* * *

_**- Chapter Five -**_

"_**Novella"**_

_n – a fictional prose that is longer and more complex than a short story_

* * *

Before this author can explain just exactly what happened to create the monstrous explosion that blasted the hundreds of civilians and ninjas working on and around the Hokage Tower off their feet and into the air, we must first clear a few misconceptions one might have about the world where our heroes reside in. To name one such example, people often make the common mistake of Konoha and all the other shinobi villages being rather backward in terms of technology. This, however, is not true. In fact, one can say that in certain aspects they are more advanced that we are in the real world.

This is especially evident in the field of biology and medicine. I mean, where else can you find medicine that can instantly restore mental strength and stamina (the common soldier pills), grant immense power (the tri-color Akimichi pills), and even pills where they can turn a person a person young again – albeit at the cost of their life (the pill Sakura used before her 'death')? Doctors and herbalists, healers and med-nins, priests and all other medical specialists that live in this world… they are far more skilled at saving lives than even the best of our doctors in our real world.

In a way, bloodlines abilities too are a product of their science. Although we commonly associate these otherworldly powers with words like cool and awesome and dismiss them simply by the term 'bloodlines', let's be real for a second and imagine if these people actually did exist in society. What would we call them? Monsters? Freaks? Mutants? If you had called them by the last term, then you will actually be correct. The word 'bloodlines' is actually a fancy term for calling people with powers developed from artificial mutation on a physical, mental and the genetic level. None of bloodlines that exist in this world were naturally 'born'. If you trace them all back to their source, one can easily find evidence that they were all artificially 'created'.

Of course it will still be incorrect to say that they are all advanced than we. The most notable difference, for one, is that the residents of this world do not have what we call computers. The closest thing they have to compare to is that of the ability to develop televisions, video cameras and VCRs, and that level of technology is still only available at the government and military level, thereby making them inaccessible to the general public. Telephones too do not exist, and while they do have radios, they exist only in form of walkie-talkies and PA systems where range is limited and, at their level of technology, extremely expensive to make. In a world where TV programs and radio broadcasts do not exist, people flock to open-air theatres and festivals for entertainment and long-distance communication is done via letters and messenger birds. For them, mass media is still a foreign concept.

Weapon technology is where the difference in technology levels will seem most awkward. While cannons do exist (a technology that is oddly exclusive to the all-too-often underappreciated samurai caste), guns do not until much later, and even then it will never reach a level where it would be as popular as the king of long-range combat: the bow and arrow. This might seem odd to some, but if this author may refer to the battle between Hyuuga Neji and Kidomaru that will take place 27 years in the future from where this story is at now, some may be inclined to change their minds. While guns and their bullets are definitely superior in projectile speed and rate of fire, they cannot compare to the bow and arrow in all other aspects. With no such handicap like the gun has with the 'gunshot', the bows can not only fire their arrows in complete silence, they also have the ability to change the trajectory of the arrow by attaching 'homing' properties to it, and, above all, the gun cannot match the bow and arrow when it comes to sheer destructive power. By simply wrapping a few blast notes around the arrow, one can turn the seemingly primitive weapon into a modern equivalent of an inexpensive, compact, foldable, homing grenade-launcher with a built-in silencer. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the bow and arrow can do.

In fact, it could be said that blast notes alone are the very reason why weapon technology seems so backward in the ninja world. Cheap and easy to make, the blast note virtually eliminated the necessity of gunpowder and changed warfare forever. Combined with the many different mass-destruction techniques man developed using their spiritual power known as chakra, there was never the need to branch into other directions of weapon technology. That's not to say there weren't a few exceptions, of course, biological science and chemical science being among the few notable ones. Although ninjas have devoted countless hours in studying their applications in chakra and their uses above all other sciences, in order to understand exactly how things in the physical plane worked as they did for better results, research into those sciences could not be avoided. Such as physics.

If there is one thing in this world we can call the embodiment of physics, one can simply stare up and above the blue sky and point at the sun. Although we take the sun as something of a given, the truth remains that the sun is a seething, restless, and dangerous million kilometre wide thermonuclear reactor. Deep in its core, where temperature exceeds thirty million degrees, atoms, much less whole molecules, are unable to exist, stripped of their electrons and leaving only a basic atomic structure known as the nuclei behind. And when these nuclei smash together under these unimaginable temperatures and gravitational pressures, fusion occurs, and particles of electromagnetic energy we call photons are then born. They then make their torturous way through half a million kilometres of incredibly dense ionized gas we call plasma, towards and eventually out of the sun's shining surface. Like an air bubble forming underwater and making its way towards the surface, the surface of the sun erupts, hurling plasma into space only to pour right back down into the sun due to its immense gravity. We call the largest of these eruptions as solar flares.

And just how powerful are these solar flares, you ask?

Well, let's just say that it's as powerful as a hundred million billion tons of exploding TNT, or enough energy that can power the entire human civilization for fifty thousand years.

And if, just if, someone could artificially create a solar flare, even if it were atomic in size, what would the results be?

Well, there you have it.

* * *

_Katon: Tenchi Bakuretsu._

Fire Element: Geo Catastrophe.

That was the name of the technique.

The technique was invented by a man that fittingly went by the name of Rock Sun during the era of the Seventh Hokage. A genius of hard work in brain instead of brawl, Sun created a technique where one can, by overheating chakra inside a relatively condense material like a rock by using precise chakra control, trigger a massive explosion that could easily be focused towards a single direction by hurling said rock at enemy.

However, realizing the potential of disaster should the technique fall into the wrong hands, he requested the Seventh Hokage Haruno Sakura to deem Geo Catastrophe as a forbidden jutsu and be sealed within the forbidden scroll before the technique could be put into actual use. With the knowledge of Geo Catastrophe's existence limited to two people only, with one of them a chakra physicist that couldn't use chakra and the other one a Hokage who didn't have enough chakra control remaining to execute the jutsu due to her illness, _Tenchi Bakuretsu_ looked as if it were a technique that would forever be banished from the memories of man.

Now, however, that number has increased to three.

* * *

"Ugh…"

The moment Hyuuga Hiashi opened his eyes after the blinding shockwave finally subsided, the first thing that came into his mind was his concern for his younger sister. Although he would've gotten up right away to look around, when he got up on his feet and saw the immediate area around the Hokage Tower ruins reduced into a deep crater that looked to be at least two hundred meteres wide, dread set in.

_Such tremendous power…! Setsuka… if Setsuka was in that blast, then she's…_

"Wh… what the hell just happened?"

Unexpectedly it was the dismayed voice of his injured friend that helped him snap back into the immediate reality. Crouching down, he gathered some chakra in his hands and struck a rather large slab or concrete debris lying next to him, reducing it into mere powder to reveal a wounded but rather healthy looking blond individual lying underneath.

"Dan." With a sort-of relieved look on his normally expressionless face, Hiashi offered his hand to his older ex-teammate. "You're alive. Can you stand?"

Clutching the bleeding wound on his head with one hand, Dan slowly shook his head sideways. "I don't need it. I'm just shaken up. Thanks, though. That Kaiten you two did at the last second saved my life. I would've caught the brunt of the shockwave otherwise."

Hisashi nodded. "Don't mention it."

Dan managed to laugh out a little. "Keeping your cool as always, huh? That's just like you."

"Is he all right?" A voice from behind spoke.

"He seems to have suffered a slight concussion." Hiashi answered without turning back. "But otherwise our Hokage candidate seems to be just fine."

Dan laughed a little harder. "Oh knock it off, will you…" He waved a little meek wave at the newcomer. "Glad to see you okay too, Hizashi."

Hiashi wasted no time in asking his younger brother the most important question that needed answering. "Have you seen any others?"

It was a subtle question with the undertone of _Did you see Setsuka anywhere?_

"…None so far."

It was a diplomatic answer which translated to _I don't know where Setsuka is._

"I haven't seen Nidaime-sama either, nor that Hei character Nidaime-sama was talking about." Hizashi continued without pause. "Knowing Nidaime-sama, he'll probably be all right, but for anyone else that was in range of the blast… I don't know."

Silently, Hiashi stood. "I will go look for her."

"We don't know if she's-"

"Do _not_ make me repeat myself, Hizashi."

The tone of finality in Hiashi's voice made it difficult for Hizashi to come back with a counterargument. "…I understand. Shall I take care of our wounded comrade here then?" The younger brother asked, looking down at Dan.

"Don't worry about me guys." Dan finally spoke up when the topic of the conversation focused on him. "This is my fault to begin with. If I had taken care of her properly like I promised I would…"

"Don't pressure yourself." Hiashi said. "No one could have foreseen this."

Dan stared at Hiashi quizzically. "Really? You make it sound like you don't believe in what you just said."

Hiashi tightened his chin. "Don't make it worse than it already is, Dan."

Dan winced at his words. "Sorry."

Ignoring Dan, Hiashi focused a brunt of chakra to his feet and was about jump away from the crater to observe the surrounding area from higher ground when he suddenly noticed that something was emerging out of his own shadow. Dispersing the chakra back into his body and settling into a basic _juuken _stance, he prepared himself for attack when the emerging voice suddenly broke his concentration.

"Looking for me, brother dearest?"

"Wha-"

The shadowy blob soon settled into his sister's splitting image. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?" She said, smiling. "I have a little something I want to show you."

"_**Niisan, get away! That's not Setsu-!"**_

So distracted he was with the image in front of him, everything was already too late when he finally noticed her blue hair.

"_Katon: Tenchi Bakuretsu!"_

The world around him erupted into pure energy.

* * *

"Fuck!"

Uchiha Kazuki slammed the ceramic cup he was holding in his hand straight into the floor, shattering the half-oval container into a thousand little pieces. Frustrated his sake got spilled on his hakama pants for a second time in a row thanks to some explosions that rocketed away in the distance, his attempt at calming down his foul mood with his favourite beverage was failing miserably.

"Fucking piece of shit! Fuck this war! Fuck them all!"

The ill-tempered head of the Uchiha clan was about to exit the kitchen so he could retreat back into his private sleeping chambers to get some well deserved sleep when he saw a flash of brown zip past his field of vision.

A flash of brown… brown…

_Wait, brown?_

"Damn it, woman! Kokone! _KOKONE!"_

Tearing down the shouji doors that normally kept the kitchen and the dining room into separate rooms, he stomped his way out into the hallway and headed straight for his wife's room. He threw the door wide open and prepared to lay down the law on his wife when a large brown bundle suddenly jumped at his face and started to claw away.

"Ow, ow, _ow! _Damn it Kokone! Get the fucking thing _off_ me!"

"Denka, behave."

"Hey, the guy deserves it for disturbing my sleep in the kitchen meow!"

"No kidding. And can't this guy stop cussing even for one second nya?"

"Kokone… the stupid cat is _STILL NOT OFF MY FUCKING FACE. _And…_**THE FUCK! ANOTHER CAT'S ON MY FUCKING BA-"**_

"Watch your tongue Kazuki dear. The children are sleeping in the room behind us."

"_Grrrrrrrr."_

"Growling won't help. Now Denka, please stop clawing away at my husband's face. I'd like for it to remain handsome."

"Meooow… fine. As you wish, mistress."

"You too Hina. I don't want him castrated."

"But it's so tempting nya. This thing has already put you through so much pain by making you give birth to two children. It's not like he needs it anymore now too nya."

"I'm going to have _YOURS_ castrated for this, you piece of-"

"Hina is a female, dear."

"_Grrrrrrrr."_

"I told you, growling won't help. Now Hina," She clapped her hands twice. "Off. Now."

"Nyau?"

"Yes, now. Don't make me repeat myself."

"Yes nyaaa…"

Kazuki released the breath he didn't know he was holding when his wife's crazy psycho-cat finally released her hold on his precious jewels. Regaining his composure now that the hellcats were back at his wife side, he opened his mouth to shout at her for bringing cats inside his house again but changed his mind when he noticed the cats were ready to pounce on him anytime if necessary. Deciding that he will instead find and kill whoever it was that first had the bright idea of turning ordinary cats into nin-cats, he convinced himself to calm down to speak in even terms.

"I_ thought_ I told you to not bring your fucking cats in here." He snapped.

Well, relatively even terms anyway.

Plucking her long smoking pipe out of her mouth, she smiled. "Is that the first thing you say to your wife you haven't seen in two months?"

Her angelic smile was creeping him out but he tried his best to not let it show up on his face. He had an image to keep, after all. "Not my fault you keep on insisting on running your fucking shop." He said as he shrugged. "You could easily hire someone to run it for you, you know."

"Why, but I heard the Uchiha adheres to tradition."

"Just because you married into our clan doesn't mean you have to stick to your clan's."

"Not a clan, dear. Just a normal family."

"Says the woman in a 'normal family' that runs a weapon shop in the middle of fucking nowhere that raises talking nin-cats that can tear a man's genitals off in a flash as a hobby."

"Why, thank you meow."

"I wasn't talking to you, tanuki-face."

"Hsssssss!"

She clapped her hands again. "Denka."

"Meow, but mistress!"

Her smile grew larger. "Denka?"

"…Yes mistress, I understand meow."

Kazuki shook his head. "I don't know how you do that, woman."

"Do what?" Now she was flashing her smile at him.

One look was all it took for him to give up the argument. "…Never mind."

"And for your information, Kazuki, we don't run the weapon shop in the 'middle of swear-word nowhere'."

"City ruins… whatever! It's the same thing!"

"No it's not."

"Yes it i-"

Kazuki could've _sworn_ he could see angel wings and a halo glowing over his wife's head. It just made everything that much worse, too.

"Forget it, you win."

"Much better." She said as she leaned back and put her smoking pipe back in her mouth. Inhaling and exhaling a large plume of smoke, she then put the instrument down next to the fireplace and looked at him curiously. "Now then, was there anything else you wanted to say Kazuki dear?"

Actually, with the anger dissapated and gone now Kazuki wasn't so sure on how he was going continue the conversation anymore. Not wanting to condem himself to silence, he settled with starting a new topic on something else entirely. "Still wearing that ridiculous headband of yours I see." He said as he gestured over it with his chin.

"Oh these?" Kokone touched the cat-ear headband with the tip of her hand. "Aren't they nice? These are brand new ones too!"

"I don't see any difference."

"Kazuki dear, you were the one who said they looked cute when we first met."

He rolled his eyes. "The biggest mistake of my life."

"How rude. Are you going to say our children that happened as a result were the biggest mistake of your life too?"

Kazuki scowled. "Pulling that out just isn't fair."

"It gets you every time, doesn't it dear?" Kokone laughed.

Kazuki's face turned suddenly serious. "How are they?"

"The children? They're just fine, dear. A little tired from the journey perhaps, but they're sound asleep now."

The war had erupted right when they were expecting his wife and his children to arrive, and although Kazuki would've liked to meet them by the entrance of the village by person, duty came first and he went off to fight off Mist invaders that were invading the village. Instead, he had to let several lower-ranked clan members go pick Kokone and their children up from an Uchiha safe house not so far away with order to escort the three back into the village walls discreetly and safely as possible. Several members of the clan council were against going through such risk to bring family members back into a war-zone and recommended they turn back and hide themselves away the northern city ruins where Kokone ran her family's weapon shop until things calmed down, but after he treatened to kill them if they didn't go through with it, they complied. He hadn't seen his wife and his two children in two months, and nothing, _nothing_ was going to take that away from him, not even a bloody freaking war. Although, he supposed, the escort _was_ rather unnecessary…

"Did you have any trouble getting in?" He asked, just in case.

"Not really. We had a run-in with one group of Mist-nins when we passed through the village walls but they were taken care of by these two here." She playfully ruffled the larger nin-cat's fur. "They made for a nice, tasty snack, didn't they Hina?"

"They sure did nya!"

Kazuki didn't want to know what fate befell those poor Mist-nins. His wife and her summons were a force to be reckoned with.

"The children didn't have to see that, did they?"

"Of course not. No need for them to see something so traumatic."

So it seems that even his wife knew that what she's capable of is actually quite gruesome. _I guess she's not as innocent as she claims to be…_

"Why?" She asked.

Kazuki shook his head. "Nothing, just was wondering."

She tilted her head to the side. "Kazuki dear, are you all right?"

"…I'm fine Kokone."

"You're not usually this curious over the well being of our children."

Her words stung in a way Kazuki didn't know it could.

"Kokone, I…"

"You went to see Sen before you came back home, didn't you."

Silence.

"Well?"

"…Yeah, I did."

"Do you still love her?"

Kazuki hesitated and did not answer.

"I'll take that as a yes. I expected as much." Konone sighed melodramatically. "Even in death, I can't win against her, can I? Maybe I should've let those Mist-nins actually kill me. Maybe then I can finally compete against Masaki-san."

That hit a nerve. "Damn it, woman! That's not funny!"

"Oh my. It was a joke, dear." She chuckled. "Don't get so worked up over it!"

He couldn't tell if she was serious or not. Deciding wisely that he didn't want to find out, he turned around. "Whatever." He said, his foul mood quickly returning. "I'm going to bed."

"Wait."

He stopped.

"You didn't call me and the children back from the shop simply because you wanted to see me, did you?"

It was true. That wasn't the only reason.

"That's not the main reason I called you guys back to the village, though." He said.

"I know. But I am, after all, the wife of the Uchiha clan head. I understand what responsibilities I must fulfill. I am already putting a strain on you by allowing me my selfish desire to continue operating the family weapon shop. For that," She tucked her knees, sat upright, and bowed down deep in a submissive gesture. "I am thankful."

Kazuki waved it off. "It's nothing. I can bend a few rules here and there, but this…"

"…Is something you cannot bend." Kokone finished as she rose from her bow. "I know."

Kazuki sighed again and sat himself down on the tatami floors. "I don't want to force this one on him so early, y'know? Rules are rules, but this is our _children_ we're talking about. I wanted to delay it as long as possible but they've been on my ass about it for ages, so yeah. Decision time."

"Fugaku's fiancée candidates."

A slow, curt nod. "Yep."

An arranged engagement even though the heir-to-be was only six years old. He hated having to force his own son to walk the same path as he once did. Fugaku could also be fated into facing the same kind of disaster he had to face in his youth. He could only hope Fugaku will end up loving the girl they had chosen him for, but sadly, the lovey-dovey fairy tail ending in arranged marriages almost never happened.

"The current candidate the clan elders are considering is Inuzuka Tsume." He said.

"Tsume? That rowdy girl?"

"Yeah."

She frowned. "She's going walk all over poor Fugaku if she becomes his fiancée."

Kazuki simply shrugged. "If you got any other candidates, I'm all ears."

Kokone seemed to look as if she was considering something. "Kazuki?"

"What?"

"Why did you love Masaki-san?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Kokone… now's not exactly the time for…"

"Was it because it was forbidden love? The ancient taboo of an Uchiha marrying a Hyuuga. Did that add to the temptation?"

"Kokone, I said now's not the-"

"Answer me seriously Kazuki. This is important."

He sighed. "Yeah, a part of it I guess. Now tell me, why is this important?"

"One more question. Would you like to mend relationships with the Hyuuga clan?"

It was another touchy question. "Sen's a bastard."

"Yes he is. But Masaki-san was not. She was a charming woman in the short time I got to know her. And their children, they are innocent. Clan relationships shouldn't have to suffer because of petty feuds like what you two have going on."

"Sen. Is. A. _Bastard._" He carefully repeated. "Get to the point before I lose my patience for real, woman. Who is this candidate you're considering for Fugaku?"

"Haruno Mikoto."

* * *

Orochimaru was always accepting to the idea that in war, he was simply but another soldier in a sea of the anonymous grand scheme. He knew a lot of people would disagree with his idea, insisting instead that they were different, that despite being ninjas, they were human beings, some even going as far as saying they were independent _individuals_. For Orochimaru however, the idea didn't bother him one bit.

After all, despite the widespread fame he and his teammates had accumulated over the years as the 'Sannin' – like the time they had wiped out the largest drug cartel in Fire Country's history, for instance – it didn't change that fact that they were just following orders. They had wiped out that criminal organization only because they were hired to do so by the feudal lords of Fire Country, and had he ran into the organization while he was off duty, he was fairly certain that he wouldn't even have bothered to lift a finger to stop them and their operations. Orders, for him, were to be followed to the letter. No more, no less.

Of course, had Tsunade and Jiraiya accompanied him during his supposed scenario he was positive that they would not only undoubtedly drag him into shutting the entire operation down, but the entire cartel along with it. While he was vigilant, cautious, and unwilling to move until he was certain he had an overwhelming advantage over whatever opponent he faced, Tsunade and Jiraiya were the types of people who blindly charged forward despite overwhelming risks if it meant they could save lives.

In that sense of stupidity, Tsunade and Jiraiya were really alike.

He had once mentioned this to his teammates when their useless chatter was getting rather annoying and Orochimaru had since then sworn to himself to never, _ever_, mention such things in front of Tsunade ever again. While Jiraiya had accepted the words enthusiastically (almost too enthusiastically, he had noted), Tsunade on the other hand was not amused in the slightest. It was one of the very few times Tsunade had tried to kill him (unlike Tsunade's almost-daily attempts on Jiraiya) and convinced him afterwards that those two were a match made in heaven. He of course kept this to himself; he had no doubt in his mind that Tsunade would try to kill him for real had he not. Orochimaru didn't have a death wish, unlike Jiraiya who on that very same day decided to peek on an already very peeved-off Tsunade while she was bathing and was beaten to the inches of his life as a result.

However, it did continue to puzzle him why most ninjas were so… unique. From what he'd studied in scrolls of ages past, ninjas were supposed to be professional assassins, anonymous soldiers who mindless obeyed the wills of their master, dirtying their hands to protect their village and their nation. But the _only_ ninjas he thought that resided in the Hidden Leaf that actually fit that true description were the ANBU, while the rest of their ninja forces acted no different from as the samurai caste and the mercenaries that protected the Feudal Lords. Orochimaru even supposed that the only difference between the two were that samurai and mercenaries (usually) held next to no knowledge about the ninja arts. And that was it. What alarmed Orochimaru even more was the fact that even the ANBU nowadays barely fit within the description of a 'true' ninja. The members of the 'Yotsuba' ANBU squad were just as famous as the Sannin were and were certainly not anonymous like most ANBU claimed to be. Even among the faceless, masked crowd, they too had retained their individuality.

When Orochimaru first became a ninja, he was at first convinced that individuality made people weak. While he was honoured at first to be included in a team that was taught by the apprentice of the Second Hokage, he hated the fact that he had to be teamed up with a stentorian snotty-nosed brat and a borderline insane girl that packed a mean punch. They both loudly claimed that they had people they want to protect, connections they didn't want to sever. Orochimaru didn't have anyone to protect, and he had long since severed any connections with everything he cared. They were everything he was not. They were weak. He was strong. He wanted to become a ninja, a _real_ one, and that was that.

But over the years, they changed him. He can't figure out exactly how they did it or why they even bothered to, but they had shown him that having someone to protect didn't make that person any weaker, but in most cases stronger. Through missions, through hardships, through adventures, he had grown to care for his teammates, and the thought of wanting to be together forever grew stronger each and passing day. And though this, he realized that everyone in the Hidden Leaf who thrived in their individuality were the ones that were truly strong. Retreating into the shadows of anonymity only made people weak. They were the ones that were running away.

Orochimaru still had to accept that he was still a stranger in a stranger land. Unlike his teammates and other individuals in Hidden Leaf, he didn't have a purpose that defined his existence. Sure, he wanted to protect his teammates, protect his village. But that was all, only the simple want; unlike the others he never went above and beyond that call of duty, never did anything that he deemed unnecessary to that simple want. There was something more his teammates and the people in the village possessed that he did not. A definite something was missing in his life, and for the life of him he couldn't figure what it was. There was of course the option of consulting his teammates about the subject, but he was fairly certain that they would ask him if he was having a fever or something for saying something that was so out-of-character.

But when he arrived at the scene where Hatake Sakumo was administrating emergency treatments to the comatose female Mist-nin, everything changed.

Midori's image flickered out for a brief second but soon refocused into her normal solid image when the shockwave of the second blast subsided. "_Sheesh, what the hell was that? Not once, but a force of that magnitude twice in a row?"_

"You're the information specialist. You tell me." Quickly wrapping up the rest of the bandages around the bleeding Mist-nin's head, Sakumo looked up to see Orochimaru and raised a hand in cordial greeting. "Yo. Not the person I was exactly expecting. Tsunade too busy?"

Orochimaru didn't reply and continued to stare at the unconscious woman lying beneath his feet.

"Orochimaru?"

"Hm?" Snapping out of his stupor, Orochimaru quickly regained his composure. "Oh yes. She sends you and the rest of your team the best of regards."

Sakumo looked at Orochimaru oddly for a brief second before he shook it away. "Uh, right. Anyway," Sakumo eyed the Mist-nin down then back up again. "She's the one. I suggest you get her back to Tsunade as quickly as possible. I've done the best I could, but yeah, I'm not a doctor."

"_Sakumo?"_

A little surprised at the slightly alarmed tone of his wife, Sakumo turned his attention away from Orochimaru. "What is it Midori?" He asked.

"_Several of my network nodes went unoperational around the immediate area of the Hokage Tower ruins."_

"…Unoperational?" Sakumo knew Midori liked to boast how her network nodes were close to being indestructible once they were set up. "How is that even possible?"

"_That blast must have somehow contained an electro-magnetic pulse that knocked communications down, but even if that were the case my viral magnet and the power of my central processing unit should've prevented an overload! Unless... unless the pulse was so powerful it bypassed the manoeuvres of the matrix I've coded into the program, but then that means the enmity generated from that explosion would've -"_

"Um, Midori, I have no idea what in the seven blazes of hell you're talking about. Layman's terms please."

"_But that's…"_ She threw her hands up in the air. "_Argh! You're hopeless! It means that that explosion right now must've shut my systems down! Whoever generated that blast is bad news. Bad news! Goddamnit! My precious babies! Whoever did that is going to pay!"_

"Just bill the bill to the good ol' Hokage-sama. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to re-supply you with your 'high tick' equipment."

"_Hi-tech! Get it right! Why do you sound so unconcerned over it anyway?"_

"Hang on one sec." He pressed a button on his earpiece. "Did you get that, Nagi? Anything headed your way?"

Nagi's usual hard-voice reply came back almost immideately. "_None."_

Sakumo pressed another button. "Kaede? You back yet?"

He heard some shuffling on the other end of the radio as Kaede's reply came back over the line. "_Don't rush the ladies, Sakumo! And yeah, I'm back in position. You can tell Midori to stop covering for me. I'm good. And no, nothing's headed my way."_

"You're the closest to the Hokage Tower. What's the situation?"

"_I'd say the situation seems pretty contained. I see lots of backup headed towards ground zero."_

"Thanks." Sakumo clicked the radio off and turned to his wife's image with a broad shrug. "See? Nothing to worry about."

"_But…"_

"We can start worrying about it when the destruction starts expanding outwards." He said as he interrupted her. "We're not exactly in a position where we can move around freely anyway." He paused and made a face at the words he just said. "God, I sound like Nagi."

His teammate was not the one to miss out on such an insult. "_I heard that."_

Midori only giggled at the small exchange between the two male members of the Yotsuba ANBU team. "_I guess."_

"I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation, but…"

"Whoa!" Sakumo had almost completely forgotten about the presence of the third member here. "Orochimaru! Geezus, scaring me like that… wait, why are you still here?"

Orochimaru gave a quick glance over the Mist woman he cradled bridal-style in his arms. "What do you suppose is going to happen to them?"

"Them?"

"You said she was pregnant with a baby girl."

Oh crap. He hadn't thought of that.

Midori folded her arms in front of her as she frowned."…_That's true. Whether we like it or not, that woman is a Hidden Mist ninja. Given her condition she can't be accepted as a prisoner-of-war, and then there's the issue about the baby…"_

"Orphanage, maybe?"

"_Most likely. And that's not even worst case senario."_

"Yeah, she could be killed." Sakumo scratched his head. "Damn, what are we going to do?"

"I may have a solution to this problem."

Sakumo looked up at Orochimaru, a little surprised at the proposal. "You do?"

Orochimaru shifted his arms around the bit so the woman would be in a more comfortable position. "Do you know what the name of the baby girl is?"

His memory of the incident still fresh, Sakumo hesitated slightly before he gave his answer. "Yeah. The father gave her the name just before he died. Mitarashi Anko. What's that gotta do with anything?"

"It is decided then."

"Hm?

"I will adopt the girl."

"Say _what?"_

Orochimaru smiled. He had finally found that little something that was missing in his life.

* * *

As the smoke cleared away, Kagerou was expecting to see this girl's older brother torn into shreds by the sheer force of this new newly acquired technique she picked up from the girl's memories. But instead of seeing torn flesh and more rubble, what she saw standing in front of her instead was her master, his gigantic _Kubikiri Houchou _in hand, breathing heavily from the damage he took upon receiving the blast in almost full-force. So shocked she was at the scene, it took her several seconds for the abnormality in front of her to sink in.

Her master wasn't injured because he got caught in the collateral.

He was injured because he had saved those two whitey-eyed teenagers and the dumb looking blond man she was aiming to kill.

"It is… a devastating technique." Her master calmly observed without waiting for her to speak. "But it does have one flaw. The force of the blast is too concentrated in one direction. One has to search for the single epicentre of energy and simply strike it with enough force. The attack was unavoidable but I have at least dissipated enough force to render your attack into something that is non-fatal."

"I don't care about that!" She screamed at him before she could stop herself. "WHY!? Why did you save them!?"

"You are making a dreadful mistake. I did not save them." He said as he took a small step forward and resheathed his sword. "I did this to save you."

Her sprout of anger dissipated in a flash. "...What? But Master, I don't know what you're talking abo-"

"You are under the influence of Kyuubi."

Her eyes grew wide from shock. "How did you-"

"I know many things you do not." Her master continued. He sighed. "I should've known this would happen. I had suspected you would be able to read a person's memories when you took them over with your shadow readings, but I did not think you would be able to tap into their subconsciousness. I was careless. And that is my responsibility. Forgive me, Kagerou."

She was about to sputter out another response before her master suddenly lunged forward and drew his heavenly sword from his sheath and struck. Kagerou barely had enough time to dodge before the sword split the ground she was standing on moments before into a deep crevasse.

Skidding into a stop on a spot not too far away, Kagerou's borrowed face of 'Hyuuga Setsuka' twisted into that of befuddlement. "…Master… I don't understand… I did everything you told me to! And thanks to you, I now have the powers to flatten this village into the very ground! This is for the benefit of the Mist!" She screamed again. "Why are you _doing_ this!?"

"To make you realize that your continued possession of that girl is dangerous." He said coolly as he lifted the sword off the ground and prepared himself to strike again. "Leave that body now, Kagerou." His eyes turned more serious now. "Don't force me to do this."

"But Master, this girl I've possessed could possibly be the most precious weapon the Mist could ever hope to claim! I realize it can be risky, but I _can't _just leave her be! This war-"

"A war we are supposed to _lose_."

"…What?"

"I will not allow any further deviations. This is why we must _leave_. _Now._ This is your final warning, Kagerou. Stand down."

She begins to understand. "…I can't believe… Master… the whole reason the surprise attack failed… it was _you?"_

The master swordsman does not answer.

Still in denial, she slowly shakes her head. "But… but why? Why would you... betray us… why would you betray _me!?_"

"Kagerou…"

"No." She starts to back away. "No. This is just a dream. This can't be happening. This can't be happening!"

"There are some things in this world that is beyond your comprehension." Her master says it with an icy tone. "Now stand down and remove yourself from that girl."

She takes another step backwards "No! I will not abide by the orders of a traitor!"

"You _will _listen to me!"

"No!"

"_**Listen to me, Konan!"**_

"_**Don't call me by that name!"**_

Something snaps. With mixed emotions of anger, sadness and desperation swirling within the woman known as Kagerou – no, a young girl named Konan's heart, she charges forward.

* * *

Memories can be cruel.

"_What is your name, little one…?"_

"_Are you all alone? Do you want to be needed?"_

"_I will give you a new home. A new name."_

"_Come with me, 'Kagerou'."_

"_Come with me."_

Inside his eternal prison, the Kyuubi roared in laughter.

* * *

Contrary to popular belief, the Second Hokage Kazama Seishi was in fact _not _all right like Hyuuga Hizashi had earlier assumed. Instead of being propelled upwards like most people when Geo Catastrophie's initial blast struck the premises the Nidaime Hokage had the unfortunate luck of being pushed down into a small lateral split in the ground. The result: having to endure a freefall that felt like it lasted forever when it reality it probably lasted for only a few seconds. In his defense, he _was _falling through the hole in total darkness...

Either way, he was stuck. The second blast that followed soon after had covered up what little opening there was, leaving him all alone, trapped in the middle of the ancient corridors that ran underneath the now-totally ruined Hokage Tower up above.

_Ah well, at least on the bright side Monkey gets to have a new Hokage Tower all to himself once we build a new one for him…_

He dusted himself off and flicked his fingers to produce a small fireball hovering over his palm. He stood up and took his first step to look for a different way out when his right foot stepped on something soft.

"Whoa!" He instantly pulled his right foot back to where he stood, only to see a naked boy lying face-first on the corridor floors.

"Now where did he come from…?" Curious, he poked the passive boy with the tip of his foot. No reaction. Then he remembered Hiashi's words from earlier before.

_This must be that 'dead boy' he was talking about earlier._ Seishi thought as he continued to prod the body with the tip of his foot a few more times for good measure. _Gotta wonder, though, what the hell was a boy like him doing down here…?_

"U… ugh…"

"Whooooooaa!" Startled, Seishi took another step back to see the boy slowly return from the far beyond. "You're not dead! You're alive!"

"…What happened…?" The blonde boy slowly tried to sit up but flinched when he did so. He clutched his stomach in pain.

Seishi then noticed that there was a pool of blood around the boy and a lot of smeared red from where he clutched his stomach. "You okay, kid?" He asked, crouching down next to the blond boy with spiky hair. "Here, let me take a look at it. You really shouldn't be moving around as much if the wound really is serio-"

"It's not there."

Seishi blinked. He wasn't really expecting he'd get interrupted mid-sentence. "What?"

"It's not there." The boy repeated. "The wound, it's not there."

He chuckled at the boy's feeble attempt at convincing himself that everything was all right. "That's impossible. See? You're bleeding like cra-" As he removed the boy's hands from where he supposed the wound was, his words caught in his throat. There really was no wound. "How…?"

"…I guess… it's probably because of-" The boy suddenly jerked upright. "Wait, before that! Haku! Where's Haku?"

"Haku?"

"Yes! I could've sworn it was him! I mean, yeah, he really looked different being older and all, but there's no mistaking that girly voice! There's no way in hell that can't be Ha-"

The boy didn't get to finish when Seishi grabbed the boy's throat and started choking him.

"Who are you?" Seishi asked in a deadly serious voice.

The boy looked up at him with confusion swirling in his eyes. "Gah… wh-what…"

"I asked you a question, kid. How do you know Kuro no Hei's true name?"

"Can't… can't breath…!"

"Answer me now! Tell me your name!"

"N-no! Sakura-chan told me I shouldn't give out my name to anyone!"

"…Sakura-chan?"

Realizing the error he made, the boy underneath panicked. "No, not Sakura-chan. I mean Setsuka-chan!"

"…Wait, so what you're saying is that Hyuuga Setsuka is Haruno Sakura?"

The boy's eyes went wide. "H-How did you…"

Seishi released the grip he held over the boy. "By the gods. You. It's you. Naruto." He laughed. "Oh my god! What irony! So you were down here all along!"

He continued to laugh for a full minute when he finally realized that the boy in front of him had no clue as to what he was talking about. Choking down his laughter, he slammed a friendly pat on his back. "Good to see you again, Naruto."

"Who… are you?" The boy asked with a weary tone in his voice.

"Don't recognize me? I suppose not, eh? With me looking this devilishly handsome and all." He smirked and struck a pose with his free hand. "There? That ring any bells?"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Looks like you finally got it. That's right! Feast your eyes on this! Tears of blood, brimming with wrath! Toad Demon of Mt. Myokuboku! I'm the devilishly-handsome sage of the-"

"ERO-SENNIN!"

* * *

"Hey sis? You awake? Sis?"

"…Stop shaking me, Fugaku."

"Did you hear that?"

"…Hear what?"

"Father and mother talking. They were discussing something about my future best friend!"

"Fugaku, fiancées aren't exactly friends."

"But mother said…"

"Forget what mother said. She can be an airhead sometimes."

"Sis! That's rude!"

"It's the truth. Now go to sleep."

"They were talking about Tsume becoming my fiancée."

"That's nice, Fugaku."

"Hey, don't you even care? If she becomes my fiancée she becomes your best friend too!"

"I hope she doesn't become your fiancée, then."

"Tsume's a nice girl, though!"

"Even though you got beaten up by her just because you touched one of her dogs?"

"Tsume is a nice girl! She's just a little…"

"Bitchy."

"Sis! That's a bad word!"

"Is that all now? I want to go to sleep."

"No! It's not all! They were talking about someone new too! Her name was... Mikoto something? Can't remember."

No response.

"Sis?"

"…No, it's nothing. Go to sleep Fugaku."

"But sis!"

"Fugaku."

"Hm? What is it?"

"Shut up."

"You're so mean sometimes, you know that Madara?"

"Whatever."

* * *

"_**Novella"**_

_n – a fictional prose that is longer and more complex than a short story_

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_**- Chapter Five - **_

_**-END-**_

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

…Better late than never, right?

Yeah, I'm not going to make excuses. The chapter is late, late, _late_. The official 'reason' I had for it was because the manga was actually becoming interesting for once and the new chapters destroyed a large chuck of what I had planned out for the story so I had to rework everything in order to make the plot work again and stuff. I really wasn't expecting a childhood background story for Pein and Konan at all, so a lot of reorganization had to be done, and…

But yeah, really, I'm such a procrastinator. Kept on thinking, "Oh, I'll finish it up next week." Next week: "Nah, next week should do fine." The week after: "I'll do it next week! Right now, it's time to play this new computer game!"

Before I knew it, five months. Sigh. It really must've taken me like three real days to write this too. Sigh. And it's short too. Siiiigh.

Onto the real notes.

Some of you may have noticed this as you were reading this chapter, but Kokone is actually not an OC. If any of you read the Naruto manga, please go back and reread chapter 354 again. That old cat granny. Yep. That's Kokone. I simply gave her a name and set her up to be the future grandmother of Sasuke and Itachi. And since she almost is always never present in the Uchiha compounds due to her running her weapon shop, plus adding to the fact that she's not an Uchiha by blood, I figured, even though I set her up to be their grandmother, she should be able to escape from the wrath of the Uchiha massacre. I mean, if Itachi really wanted to wipe out the clan, why didn't he wipe out everything that was related to it as well? Thus the reason why the cat granny got a name and an actual place in my storyline. Heck, I bet I'm probably the first person to incorporate her into a Naruto fanfiction too. And her cats are cool. I love them. Naruto needs more ninja cats.

The biggest issue I had to face when the new Naruto manga chapters came out was the issue about Konan/Kagerou's age. In the manga Konan looks really young, but the problem is that I've already described Konan/Kagerou to be a young woman in the previous chapters. Since this fanfiction is taking place 30 years before where the manga story is at now… yeah, obviously something won't add up right. The shadow possession ability I gave to Konan/Kagerou was originally for the purpose of her being able to 'switch' into different characters, thus allowing her to become whoever she was when she was finally revealed in the canon storyline. However, the manga actually gave Konan a backstory…which I didn't expect at all. Therefore, switching characters using that shadow possession thing wasn't going to work. My next idea was Kagerou to be Konan's mother, but that wasn't going to work either because I already made the Kyuubi mention that Konan/Kagerou was that of the Akatsuki (or going to be, anyway). So I finally settled with the idea that 'Kagerou', a young woman, is forcibly letting Konan, a little girl, possess her own body in order for Konan to survive in the Hidden Mist after Hei picks her off from the streets. More details to come in the next chapter, but yeah, Konan at this point 6 years old, 4 years before she is picked up by Jiraiya and trained alongside Nagato and Yahiko, making her to be 36 when she first appears in the manga story. I'm probably wrong about my guess on her real age (she's probably a lot younger than that), but that was the best I could come up with without just outright saying that Konan was born earlier than what history shows.

Damn you Kishimoto for screwing up my timeline.

And for those who went: "Wait, what the hell?" at the last scene… there is a reason for this, I swear. It will be explained, hopefully, by the next chapter.

…Which of course I have no idea when's it's going to come out. Sigh. I think I really deserve those death threats sometimes.

Oh, and for those who are confused as to who's who in the story because I've introduced so many characters and subplots, I've updated my profile siting a link that has the list of characters introduced thus far in Empyreal Paradox and some random facts about them. Hope that helps.

Reviews, questions, comments, criticism (expecting a lot of these this time around), always welcome. I will answer them to the best of my ability.

Until next time, signing off.

- Nes Mikel

_Chapter Five, Complete, November 16th, 2007_


	7. Perforce

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_By Nes Mikel_

_Acknowledgment;_

_I herby acknowledge that the work of fiction presented here is for my own personal amusement and entertainment purposes alone. Most of the story, characters, place names and other etc stuff in this fiction are copyright Naruto, Kishimoto Masashi, Weekly Shounen Jump, and any others I might have forgot. _

_For non up-to-date readers, this fiction contains characters and events introduced post-timeskip and spoilers up to the latest Naruto manga chapters. _

_I also humbly suggest reading Garden of Sanctuary and Medusa Javelin first before reading this fiction. Although not a requirement, many things in this fiction will not make sense unless they have been read beforehand. The links to both fictions are in my profile. _

_With that said, enjoy._

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox"**_

* * *

_**- Chapter Six -**_

"_**Perforce"**_

_adv – of necessity, by force of circumstance_

* * *

The Kyuubi was laughing.

Humans were such simple creatures!

The only thing the nine-tailed demon had done was to throw but a small wrench into the never ending gears of time. Just a small wrench, just a tiny deviation, and already the world outside was spinning out of control, diverting away from its original course just the way the demon liked it. How could the demon not laugh? Humans… they are so simple… so foolish. They do not realize the consequences of their actions. And they would pay dearly for it.

The demon however did find it rather amusing that the small memory mine he planted in the corner of that little girl's mind had carried out its mission to the point of perfection. It was a trifle something he had implanted in the pink-haired girl's memory node during their meeting just right before she was swept away by the pinnacle of infinity, rigged to explode fear, anger and loathing after being shown a vision of his omnipotent presence when someone had purposely looked into the girl's mind. Stifling his laughter as he adjusted five of his nine tails to sit himself into a more comfortable position, he focused his otherworldly powers and carried his vision over and beyond these eternal prison walls and into the free world outside.

Love and hate…

_Was it because it was forbidden love? The ancient taboo of an Uchiha marrying a Hyuuga. Did that add to the temptation?_

Tragedy and hope…

_It is decided then. I will adopt the girl._

And of course, anger and despair.

_No! I will not abide by the orders of a traitor!_

The Kyuubi grinned. Humans were indeed such simple, amusing creatures. Especially that blue-haired girl. The would-be Akatsuki. The young ones were always so easy to manipulate.

Withdrawing his invisible presence from the world outside, the great demon retreated back into the darkness of his chambers, allowing his little charade to carry out its course. The wrench he threw was simply for amusement, nothing more. There were other, more important things he should be focusing on.

Because this time, he would succeed.

He was sick and tired of watching this world born and die.

Twenty-two worlds. Twenty-two failures.

But this world… this twenty-third world… he would succeed. Because after so many failed attempts, he had finally taken that first and most important step forward.

His first step towards freedom.

The Kyuubi laughed again.

* * *

Ever since they crossed paths on that snowy day on the bridge four years ago, Haku could never shake the feeling that he and Konan should've never met. But from the moment he laid eyes on the blue-haired infant shivering on top of the very same bridge Haku had – or will – cross paths with the man he decided to dedicate his life to, it was already impossible for him to tear his eyes away from the sight. By the time they exchanged their first words and seeing her tired and lonely eyes, he had already decided that he would take her in and bring her back to the Hidden Mist and raise her as his apprentice, consequences be damned. She reminded him _too much_ of what he once was.

The truth was, unlike his meeting with Zabuza-san Haku and Konan didn't meet each other by chance. He precisely knew where the girl was going to be, what she was capable of and knew of her circumstances which led to her banishment from her own family despite her young age. It was a knowledge he was bestowed upon by the greatest traitor known to the Village of the Hidden Mist, a knowledge he was bestowed upon by the man he originally swore to kill. It was a knowledge he first acted upon in response to what first appeared to be just a simple favour from Kazama Seishi.

Kazama Seishi was a brilliant man. Born to a prodigious clan and the smarts and looks to go with it, he grew up to be a genius tactician and became the strongest known water ninjutsu specialist across the entire continent. A natural born leader, he led the Hidden Mist into a short but brilliant golden era in the legendary age of the First Great Ninja Wars. He contributed to countless victories against the enemies of the Hidden Mist, almost singlehandedly expanding their country's borders by almost twofold.

So famous and respected he was within the village, no one questioned his authority when he suggested they assemble a company of a thousand strong Mist ninjas to invade a certain stronghold. He told them the stronghold was an important fortress controlled by several rogue ninja clans that riddled the continent's southern woodlands, and since the southern woodlands was a territory the Hidden Mist forces were trying to expand into, an invasion plan was drawn up and the forces were assembled under his command. They carried out their invasion plan flawlessly step by step, and just when victory seemed to be assured, the tides turned.

It turned out that the 'stronghold' they were supposedly invading was a trap of the grandest of scales. It was a clever scheme set up by one of the stronger southern clans known as the Senju, and soon the standard run-of-the-mill invasion plan soon turned into a bloody massacre. It was the Hidden Mist's single greatest unprecedented military disaster.

Initially, Seishi too was thought to be lost in the attack, but when the few scattered survivors trickled back to the Hidden Mist they were surprised to learn that Seishi was in fact alive. Not only alive, but alive and well. So the question was: where was he?

He turned traitor.

Collaborating with the Senju, it was he who had set up the entire thing from the start. The suggestion, the invasion plan, the successive orders… all for the sake of his insane goal: so a bunch of scattered rogues could triumph against the mighty Hidden Mist. The Mist's greatest hero… everything he had done for the betterment of their village, every contribution, every heroic act, every charitable action… everything about Kazama Seishi was a lie. He was in cohorts with the Senju clan all along. He was a traitor from the beginning.

Taking advantage of the confusion, the betrayer and the Senju clan leader Senju Masashi (later known as Kazama Masashi after he and Seishi exchanged blood bonds) will, in a matter of years, succeed in not only uniting the rogue clans of the southern woodlands into one, but also convince the scattered city-states of the south to unite under one banner – creating that of which is now known as the Village of the Hidden Leaf and the Country of Fire. This sudden emergence of a nation and a Hidden Village effectively put a halt to any advances the Hidden Mist could possibly make against the continent's southern woodlands. To make matters even worse, the Emperor himself then recognized the new country and the ninja village, thereby effectively erasing any pretext the Hidden Mist had of an invasion. And the rest, as they say, was history. Everything went downhill from there. A single man's action changed the future of Water Country and the Village of the Hidden Mist forever.

If asked, Haku would admit that he at first wasn't really interested in who Kazama Seishi was or what he did to the Hidden Mist. Even though Haku carried the symbol of the Hidden Mist in his previous life, he was only carrying that symbol as proof of loyalty to Zabuza-san, not the village. This world was no different. He may have been born and raised in the Hidden Mist this time around but he was never loyal to the Hidden Mist to begin with. He will, and always will be, be loyal to Zabuza-san and Zabuza-san alone. He couldn't care less about what the history textbooks of the Mist wanted to teach him.

But history lessons aside, this presented him with a problem. What can he do to show that he was loyal to Zabuza-san in this world of the past? Heck, Zabuza-san wasn't even _born_ yet. Just what can he do to help Zabuza-san when he arrived in this world? What can he do to support him…?

His first thought, naturally, was to join the ranks of the Seven Swordsmen. The reasoning was simple enough. Zabuza-san was a member of the Seven Swordsmen. If Haku becomes one, then one day he'll be fighting alongside him, reunited. Perhaps Zabuza-san might even succeed in overthrowing the Mizukage now that he was here in this world to help him. Maybe this time he can make Zabuza-san's dream come true.

But exactly how was he going to join the ranks of the Seven Swordsmen? Getting himself inaugurated into the ranks of the most selective group of the most elite shinobi within the Hidden Mist wasn't going to be easy. It was a process that took years, if not decades, and even then it was the furthest thing from a guarantee. But even that question didn't hold back him for long. He knew what he had to do.

It was at that moment when Haku finally took interest in the traitorous individual known as Kazama Seishi.

As odd as it might sound, until four years ago the Seven Swordsmen weren't exactly the Seven Swordsmen per se – in fact, their group remained incomplete at six members for several decades. This was due to the fact that Raijin – one of the traditional seven swords – no longer belonged within the Hidden Mist. Instead, the sword remained in the possession of Kazama Seishi in Konoha, as Seishi never returned the sword when he betrayed the Hidden Mist and the organization of the Seven Swordsmen he once was a part of. Thus, with only six swords left within the village, the Seven Swordsmen remained incomplete at Six Swordsmen. There was talk of forging a new sword and appointing its master as the seventh swordsman, but everyone knew that it just wasn't the same. The loss of their Raijin was an embarrassment, a sour point in Hidden Mist history, and it remained that way for a very long time.

It wasn't like the Hidden Mist did nothing to correct this. After Seishi's betrayal was confirmed as real, the Hidden Mist then unconditionally offered anyone who was able to retrieve the Raijin sword the reward of an automatic induction into the ranks of the Seven Swordsmen. Since then, many have ventured out and attempted to reclaim the weapon but all attempts made on the sword were foiled. Year after year the number of attempts on the sword diminished, and when Haku decided to take up on that offer so he could join the ranks of the Mist's Seven, two years had already passed since the last attempt was made. When Haku left the village to complete his quest, everyone thought of him as foolish and expected another name to be added to the already long list of shinobi failures. The retrieval of the sword was thought of as a lost cause.

He proved them all wrong.

Haku's attempt at retrieving the sword was successful, and with a young blue-haired woman who he claimed as his apprentice he said he picked up during his travels in tow, he was thus officially made a member of the Seven Swords.

But why did Haku – or Kuro no Hei as he was known in this world – take up the blade of the _Kubikiri Houchou_ instead of the Raijin?

It was a mystery many of the residents of the Hidden Mist will ponder for years. Indeed, he was offered to take up the Raijin when he presented the sword in front of the Mizukage, but instead of triumphantly receiving it like he was supposed to he instead donated the sword to Kurosuki Raito (who at the time was the most senior member among the members of the Seven Swordsmen) and asked Raito to exchange the swords with him. When asked the reason why, Haku would only offer the person who asked the question a sad smile, and walk away with his new giant headhunting sword strapped on his back.

The answer, of course, was that there was more to the sword retrieval mission than it first seemed.

* * *

"There! Now that that's been taken care of…" The man turned around from whatever he was doing and gestured over at Naruto. "Well? Aren't you going to sit down?"

Naruto continued to gawk at the man in front of him.

Sitting himself down on the dungeon floors of the ancient passageways, the very-different looking Jiraiya spread his hands apart in a wide gesture as if to ask if he was doing anything wrong. "What? Don't just stand there gaping. You have questions right?" He patted the ground in front of him. "Sit down then. I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability."

"Buh… but, but, but…"

Jiraiya chuckled. "I understand this is confusing for you. Trust me, I'm just as confused as you are, but this is nowhere as bad as the time when I first met my younger other self."

"Huh?"

"Ah, sorry. Got a little ahead of myself. I'll explain that at a more appropriate time." He tapped the ground again. "Just sit down." He winked. "I won't bite."

There was some hesitation, but eventually Naruto did as he was told.

Jiraiya smiled. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it? Now then," He rubbed chin thoughtfully. "Where to begin, where to begin…"

"Um…" Naruto held a hand up. "Wait."

"Hm?"

"Ero-Sennin… er, you _are_ Ero-Sennin right?"

He grinned sheepishly. "Well, sort of."

"Sort of?"

The 'Jiraiya' in front of him scratched his head. "Erm, how to explain… how should I put this? There's another me out there, and he's me, but at the same time he's not. He's the me I used to be."

"………What?"

"Like I said, I'll get to that at another time, it's complicated. But I do understand why you're so confused." He spread his arms out again to offer Naruto a better look at himself. "It's because I look different, right? Can't say I blame you. Even I have trouble believing that I'm Jiraiya sometimes." He put a hand in front of his chest. "But I assure you, I am me."

Naruto frowned.

"Having a hard time believing me?"

"…It's just…" Naruto started. "It's not that I don't believe you just because you look different. If you'd looked like someone I'd never seen before then I'd probably cope with it better, but… I mean, you look… familiar… somehow."

Jiraiya nodded in understanding. "Let me guess, you just can't place my face, right? You can't exactly remember where you've seen this face before."

Naruto nodded back.

Jiraiya broke into a grin again. "It's because I'm the Second Hokage."

It took a while for Naruto to process what he was saying.

"_Whaaaaaat!?"_

"You've probably seen my face a thousand times on the Hokage Monument!" Jiraiya exclaimed. "I must say, I sure do look handsome on there, don't I?" His grin grew wider. "I had the best crafters sculpt that for me."

"Er… why the _hell _are you henge'd as the Second Hokage?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not." Jiraiya answered flatly. "This is me, flesh and blood."

"…But…but how is that even _possible?_"

"Do you find that so hard to believe?" Jiraiya asked him. "I mean, you've already told me you met Haku and Sakura, and they looked different didn't they?"

"Well yeah, but Sakura-chan was… that's right, Sakura-chan!" At the mention of her name Naruto suddenly jumped up from where he was sitting. "I've got to save Sakura-chan! They've taken her!"

"Sit down, Naruto." Jiraiya told him coldly.

Naruto began to protest immediately. "But Sakura-chan is-"

Before he could even react Naruto was roughly shoved downward, forcing him to sit down again. "Calm down." Jiraiya said from behind him with a strong right hand on his shoulder. "You're in no condition to go anywhere like this."

Naruto wasn't willing to give up that easily. "But…!"

"Stop talking," He cut him off. "And take a good look around your surroundings."

Naruto scowled but did as he was told. After looking at the piles of rock and concrete debris illuminated by the fireball floating above Jiraiya's left palm, Naruto slowly came to understand just how serious the situation was.

"What… what happened…? What caused this?"

"An explosive Katon jutsu." Jiraiya explained it for him. "Something I haven't seen before, but it turned the entire area up above into a complete debris field. Caused the ground up above to collapse into these empty corridors. Thus, this." Jiraiya swept out his left arm. "We're trapped down here, Naruto. We're not going anywhere for a while, so I figured might as well put our time into good use."

"Then what are we doing sitting around here for!" Naruto tried to jump up again. "We have to start looking for a way out!"

His former mentor sighed. "How many times must I tell you to sit down?"

Jiraiya tried to force his student back down again but Naruto was prepared for it this time. He shook Jiraiya away and backed away into a corner, prepared to defend himself from these forced sitting sessions if need be.

Seeing no point in forcing Naruto back down again, Jiraiya just let him be. "Fine, do what you want. But still, weren't you paying attention to what I was doing earlier?" He pointed a casual finger towards the small trail of water on the corridor floors behind him. "You saw me make water clones right? I've already sent them out to scout out escape routes, and if they couldn't find us one they have orders to dig us a tunnel out instead. We've got some time before they come back so calm yourself down, glue your butt back in the ground and I'll tell you everything you need to know."

The blond-haired boy didn't like the idea of abandoning Sakura-chan while he just sat here and talked, but he had to admit there wasn't much he could do to help. Although his injury appeared to be healed on the outside, on the inside it still hurt. He was still sluggish from having just woken up from a state of temporary death and he was suffering from chakra depletion on top of that. So Naruto did the only thing he could. Crossing his arms in front of him, he made a decision.

"I rather stand!" He declared hotly.

Seeing as he wasn't going to yield, Jiraiya shrugged. "Suit yourself." He went back to where he was and sat himself back down. "Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Before you start asking questions, I have a few questions of my own. Can you explain?"

Uncrossing his arms, he shrugged. "I suppose…"

"What brought you back?"

_What kind of question is that? _Naruto wondered. "What do you mean?"

"I'm correct in assuming you've been down here in the dungeons until now, yes?"

A small nod. "Well, yeah."

"Alone?"

"Uh huh." Naruto blinked once. "Why do you ask?"

Jiraiya frowned. "Do you even have the slightest idea what isolation does to you? You've been down here a _long_ time, Naruto. Much, much longer than you might think."

"Yeah, I know. Sakura-chan explained that to me. She said that I was down there for so long that… 'Time came to an end and it started all over again'? Or something like that anyway, I think that's what she said. She said that was the reason why she was reborn as a Hyuuga into this world of the past… oh!" Naruto smacked his fist on his open palm, suddenly getting it. "I get it now! So you're just like Sakura-chan! You were reborn as the Second Hokage into the world of the past!"

The older man nodded, but the frown still remained. "You're right, in a sense, but that doesn't answer my question." He pointed a finger at him. "What brought you back Naruto? Normally, when a person is exposed to long-term isolation their anxiety levels grow so high, they either start hallucinating, turn insane, or worse, their sensory functions shut down completely. Since you look pretty sane to me-"

"Why geez, thanks."

Jiraiya ignored him. "-so it's obvious that your mind remained shut down. For certain periods anyway, that certainly explains your distorted sense of time when Sakura was still in regular contact with you. But after she… well, I assume, died, considering the sheer amounts of time you spent down here nothing should've snapped you out of your stasis after you lost your only contact to the outside world. What changed that, Naruto? What was the trigger? Just what exactly brought you back?"

Naruto had to admit he never really thought about what exactly it was that caused him to regain his regular consciousness and his will to live. He paused to think about it momentarily but it didn't take him long before he was ready for an answer. "I had a dream."

"A dream?" Jiraiya asked. "You mean, like a nightmare?"

"Yeah." Naruto thought harder. "Now that you mention it, the entire thing felt like it was one long, gigantic nightmare. Except, at the end…" Naruto then proceeded to explain his entire experience, or lack thereof, in the dungeons after Konohamaru came down and gave him Sakura's diary. The shadowmoon flowers, the disappearance of the moonlight, the strange dreams of a woman dragging him through the dark passageways only to disappear when they arrived at the field of light. He then went into detail about his enigmatic conversation with the nine-tailed demon fox, his forced robbing of consciousness, the last dream where he finally discovered the true identity of the woman that had led him through his previous dreams. He tells Jiraiya of the conversation he had with the pink-haired ghost in his dreams, how his words flowed out as if he wasn't the one in control, only to be shushed away while memories rushed back at him like a painful flood.

"That's when I woke up." He finished.

If anything, Jiraiya's frown deepened as he silently digested Naruto's words. Seeing the hard look on his teacher's face, Naruto began to worry. "Ero-sennin?" He tried asking.

"Hm?" His mentor's head snapped up at the mention of his nickname.

"Er… am I going to be all right?" For all intents and purposes, besides the fact that he had spent a near eternity in a deserted dungeon only to have a gigantic butcher sword pierce his tummy to knock him into a state of fake death, Naruto felt fine. But from the looks of things, it's was obvious even to Naruto that Jiraiya clearly thought otherwise.

"I'll be honest. I don't know." He finally answered.

"Why? What's wrong with me? I mean… I look fine, don't I?"

"Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? Wait, never mind, don't answer that, stupid question, of course you haven't. But you really should see yourself for what you are right now, Naruto. Do you realize you look a _lot_ younger then when you were first imprisoned? It's like you've regressed in age."

"Yeah, I know. Sakura-chan told me about that too."

Jiraiya looked mildly surprised. "Oh?"

"She umm… she told me that it's… something to do with my different aging style? And mal… malnu…"

"Malnutrition?" His mentor offered.

"Yeah! Malnutrition, that's it. Malnutrition. Something about a… combination of my aging style compounded with… effects of malnutrition… forcing my body to regress in age? Yeah. I think that's what she said."

Jiraiya fell silent for a while again but he opened his mouth not a moment later. "It's possible." He said. "I'm no medical expert like Sakura, but I remember reading somewhere about a case where a child was trapped inside a large storage shelter full of canned foods after a large landslide buried their village. They built their village in the middle of a rather secluded valley, so the poor kid had to spend six years alone inside the shelter with nothing but canned goods and the seeping rainwater to live by before some developers decided to do away with the landslide so they could build a new village. When they found the kid, they discovered he looked as if he hadn't aged a day since the landslide buried him. Due to the extreme stress and anxiety he had to face while having to cope with his situation, his body changed so it would halt his growth so he didn't have to depend on additional supplements to keep himself alive. Human bodies can go under rapid and extraordinary changes when faced with the extreme. I suspect Sakura thought the same sort of thing happened with you."

"So what's wrong then?"

"It's just…"

"What?"

"…The way you described that last dream to me bothers me." Jiraiya finally told him. "The way you told me that you felt you weren't in control of your own speech. And that whole releasing of memory thing…" He trailed off. "It bares a striking resemblance to that of a seal being released. It's almost as if… the entire thing was _planted_ there, intentionally."

"…_Planted? _But how can anyone…" Naruto paused. He then brought his hand to his woundless but still bloodstained stomach where his invisible seal was engraved. He stares down.

_The Kyuubi no Youko…?_

"Ero-sennin, are you suggesting that maybe…?"

Jiraiya only offers him a shrug. "Maybe, but then again…"

"Then again?"

"Then again, it could be somebody else."

* * *

Memory is the ability to remember. Memory invokes past experiences or learned information involving advanced mental processes. All of this, resulting from chemical changes between neurons in several different areas of the brain. Memory is a chemical reaction within the brain, a complex algorithm of electronic signals running through a critical organ in a biological lifeform. It is one of humanity's greatest gifts, as well as their greatest curse.

And the one of the many that was currently experiencing that same cruel curse was none other than a little girl named Konan.

Every blow she struck out with her possessed body, every slash she parried, every dust cloud she kicked up as she landed on solid ground so she could charge right back at her now-former master, images resurfaced, a disastrous mix of positive and negative emotions whirled into one solid entry.

Currently, she was in the middle of reminiscing over her own oldest memory from when she was around two years old. Konan remembers it being 'around' two years old because she is not sure exactly how old she really was at the time – all she knows is that somehow, her birthday was not celebrated and she remembers the feeling of disappointment lingering in the back of her mind. However, the disappointment is overshadowed in favour of the memory of loneliness – for she was alone, an empty vessel sitting in the middle of an empty bridge. She remembers it being winter. There is light snow. The sun rose only moments ago, as fog from the morning dew still lingers about. The bitter cold stings her skin.

Suddenly there is sound, a presence. She looks up.

"_What is your name, little one…?"_

She is startled by the man standing in front of her. He is a tall dark-haired individual, dressed in black clothing that was a stark contrast from the surrounding winter clime. As he stared her with his cool brown eyes, Konan knew she really should be scared of this man. But for reasons unbeknownst to her she somehow feels that this man wasn't here to hurt her, but was here to help her instead. She feels a small twinge of anticipation. She tells him her name.

"_Are you all alone?"_

Konan suddenly notices a small, petite woman standing behind the man a short distance away. She is ghostly pale, looking at her and the man with dark eyes, lips pressed into one thin line. She holds an aura of demureness about her. She is cold and unsmiling.

"_Do you want to be needed?_

He asks again and he does so without pause. This confuses her. She asks him why.

"_I will give you a new home. A new name."_

She is puzzled at why this man knew of her homelessness. But above all, she wonders why was he showing such care and compassion to a girl he'd just met.

"_Come with me, 'Kagerou'."_

Perhaps it was the way the man spoke his words, perhaps not. Nevertheless, by the time he had offered his hand in front of her she already knew what she had to do. Her decision didn't have anything to do with logic. It was intuition. He was her one and only master.

"_Come with me."_

Drawn like a moth to a flame, she takes his hand.

* * *

Reality snaps back into focus.

"Come with me!" Her former master shouts at her. "It is not too late! Cease and desist _at once!"_

Realizing her concentration had lapsed, she grits her teeth. "Never!" She shouts back at him. "Traitors of the Mist will die by my hands!"

She attacks again, but this time she is countered easily. She dodges the wide counter just in time but not completely. Her master's large blade nicks her possessed host's formerly pink hair but she doesn't let the momentary distraction deter her and instead takes advantage of the situation by putting some distance between herself and her master. She gathers chakra in her legs for a few precious seconds as she continues to dodge the flow of attacks, and after evading the last slash, she jumps. The rage burning within her only continued to seethe. She doesn't even understand her own anger anymore.

She looks into his eyes, trying, desperately trying to grasp at whatever straws that will give her clues as to why, after everything that had happened between them, it had to come to this.

She sees nothing.

Tears start flowing out of her eyes.

"_**I'LL KILL YOU!"**_

The girl was lost, and it was killing her from the inside.

_And the great demon laughed and laughed and laughed…_

* * *

After Naruto adamantly refused to believe what he went through was some ploy by either the Kyuubi or some other unknown third party, Jiraiya gave up. Trying to convince his former pupil about the seriousness of the situation was quickly proving futile, so instead he dropped the subject and instead moved on to other, more important topics. Now it was Naruto's turn to ask the questions.

"So," Jiraiya asked. "What would you like to know first? About what I've been doing as the Second Hokage? My history perhaps? Or maybe you would like to know how I even ended up in the world of the past? Gotta tell you, when I first met that giant demon of yours in your prison after I died I almost shit my pa-"

"How do you know Haku?"

The question caught Jiraiya off guard so much he was stunned into silence.

"Of all the possible things you can ask me, _that's_ your first question?" He eventually blurted out.

"Are you going to answer it or not?"

"Why though…?"

Naruto looked annoyed. "Haven't I already answered enough of your questions?"

"Seriously, Naruto. Of all the possible questions you could ask, why that one?

"That's because Haku took Sakura-chan away!" Naruto answered, the annoyed look still on his face, no doubt from having to explain something he thought was so obvious. "Even though he promised me he'd return Sakura-chan before he knocked me out I'd still like to know why he had to take Sakura-chan away with that blue-haired lady. And you almost choked me to death just because I knew who he was!"

"Ah… ahahaha. Sorry about that." Jiraiya laughed uneasily when Naruto made mention of the embarrassing incident just earlier. "But I couldn't risk the Mist getting wind about the connection I had with Haku you see. It's crucial his cover doesn't get blown until this invasion is over. It could ruin everything."

Naruto crossed his arms in front of him and pouted at his words. "You have a lot of explaining to do, old man." He huffed.

Scratching his head out of embarrassment, Jiraiya continued to laugh weakly. "...It's a long story, you know?"

"Just get on with it already. You said we had some time before your water clones come back."

"True. Well, you're going to be in for a lot of surprises. You ready for this?"

"Why do I get the feeling that what you just said was one big understatement?"

Jiraiya merely grinned.

* * *

_Despite her being quite the beauty, Jiraiya_'_s first impression of Utono Kagerou was not a pleasant one._

_Jiraiya was a pervert. There was no question about that. He was perfectly aware of what he was, and he knew he will always be fascinated about the mysteries of what made women women and he fantasized continuously about them. Be it writing his 'inspirations' down on his written work, or simply hiding in the bushes to peek in women's baths, he had thought that his insatiable hunger for perversion will never be satisfied. Yes, he was pervert. A mega-pervert at that. And he was proud of it, damn right he was! And he thought nothing was going to change that._

_Unfortunately for him, it did._

_If there was one thing that he was disappointed about this world compared to the old, he probably would say he was disappointed in his face the most. It wasn't like he was disappointed in how he looked. The thing was, unlike the face he had in his previous life this face of the Second Hokage Kazama Seishi he had now was handsome. Quite handsome, actually. And being handsome meant that he was attractive. So attractive, in fact, his handsomeness eventually became the very reason why he defected from the Hidden Mist._

_Jiraiya didn't think of his handsomeness as a handicap at first. In fact, he took advantage of it a lot during his early years. He was very much popular with the girls and female teachers during his years in the Mist Academy and became the first person ever to graduate from the Academy without killing a single person because he'd slept with the female teacher that was responsible for determining the Genin graduates that year. During his Mist Genin years he even created a mini-harem for himself that consisted of the majority of the Genin kunoichi population and a few Chuunin and Jounin kunoichi teachers as well, and the numbers only swelled as he progressed in rank from Genin to Chuunin to Jounin. For him, the years in the Hidden Mist felt like it were heaven._

_However, he eventually came to the realization that all this just wasn't the same like it was from before. What made his acts of perversion so fun in the first place was because women hated it. He enjoyed sneaking into the women's baths for a peek because there was the risk of being found out. He enjoyed peeking afar with a telescope at women changing in a locker room because someone could sneak up to him anytime to give him a piece of their mind in often painful ways. In his mind what made perversion so great was because there was that element of thrill. But in this world of the past the excitement of the hunt just wasn't there. Every perverse thing he could think of was handed to him in a silver platter because his handsomeness apparently made him irresistible to nearly every woman in the Hidden Mist._

_Oh, don't get him wrong. He of course tried to get that thrill of the hunt back. He tried peeking in the women's bath once by peeping through a small hole in the wooden wall, and when the wooden wall came crashing down because he was leaning too much into it he found himself in the middle of breast heaven. In his pervious life, he would be chased away from the scene by a horde of angry women swinging wooden brooms and any other utensils they could afford to chuck at him – or, in Tsunade's case, beat him into an inch of his life – but the reaction he gets from the Hidden Mist women?_

"_Oh, Seishi-sama, you naughty boy! If you wanted to come into the baths you should've just said so! Why, we would've even washed you if you wanted us to! With our bodies!"_

_That's the kind of reaction he would get._

_This wasn't what he wanted at all! Where were the mobs of angry women? Where were the angry glares he'd receive just because he just walked by a hot springs resort? Gods, how he missed Tsunade. She was the pinnacle of why he enjoyed his perverse acts to begin with. Oh how he envied his past counterpart so._

_Eventually, it tired him out. Yes, that great Jiraiya, the king of kings when it came to all things perverted actually became tired of women. He still enjoyed their company so long as they weren't throwing themselves at him but occurrences like that were rather rare. Instead he dedicated himself more into his work as a Hidden Mist ninja, eventually joining the ranks of the Hidden Mist's Seven Swordsmen and became their de facto leader. He also became interested in the culinary arts, as chasing for rare and exquisite foods and inventing new ones gave that thrill of the hunt he so desperately needed. Unfortunately this had the side-effect of making him even more attractive to the female population (who doesn't like a man of status and a man that can cook?) so he spent days, sometimes even weeks avoiding his female admirers just so he can contribute to the growth of the Hidden Mist in this exciting era of the First Ninja Wars. Then one day he suddenly learns that everything was for naught when one of his many female admirers tells him the upper echelon of the Hidden Mist were prepared to betray him because they had enough of him 'stealing their women' even when his handsomeness and attractiveness wasn't really his fault…_

_Flash forward decades into the future, into a future where he had already retired as the Second Hokage and handed his title to his former teacher now-tuned student six years ago, four years ago from where this story is at now. On that day he was traveling on foot on a road somewhere near the Grass and Fire Country borders, humming as he admired the Winter snowfall around him. He was alone._

_Excursions like these were not uncommon for him. He often wandered around the lands in his previous life in the name of his research, so it's not surprising he decided to do the same after he was free from his duties as Hokage even though his research was about the culinary arts as opposed to the erotic arts he was so fascinated with before. Indeed, that was the excuse he gave to the members of the constantly annoyed Village Council who wanted to keep him confined in the village but he was going to have none of that. This excursion was special. He wasn't wandering around the lands because he was out to discover new and exquisite foods this time around. In this trip he was out to stop three young children from descending into the darkness._

_Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan._

_He wasn't stupid enough to realize that his actions could have dire consequences as he was directly interfering with history itself. Up until this moment in his life he tried his best to follow through with history as he knew it, and in some cases he did so against his bitter judgement – such as the case when he let the First Hokage be assassinated by that Hidden Waterfall ninja that triggered the start of the Second Great Ninja Wars. But these three… they were another story altogether. They may be innocent now, but they would eventually grow up to create the most notorious organization known in the entire world. He knew he had a put a stop to this, and the earlier he did it, the better. They should be around two years old right now, still young and not aware of their harsh fates they would be facing. If he could pick them up and take them back to the Hidden Leaf and raise them as ordinary ninjas, none of the sufferings would come to pass. It was a selfish desire, but it was one desire he was perfectly willing to face the consequences for._

"_Kill me."_

_He suddenly spins around and parries a kunai blow with his own. How his attacker had snuck behind him, he didn't know. He only managed to block this strike because of this female woman's voice. Just what did she mean when she said 'kill me'?_

"_Please…" She pleaded with him as she raised her other arm and tried to strike him with another kunai with her other hand. Jiraiya grabbed her arm and stopped her just before she could swing it down, locking them both into a death embrace._

"_What do you want, lady?" Jiraiya asked the mysterious female attacker. Who was she? What did she want with him? Was she another assassin sent from the Hidden Mist in an attempt to retrieve his sword?_

_Jiraiya suddenly noticed that the woman in front of him was sniffing. She was… crying?_

"_What do I want…?"_

_She lets go of her kunai and lets it drop to the ground._

"_I want to die. I want to die. I WANT TO DIE!"_

_She falls to her knees and starts to weep._

_That was how the two of them first met._

* * *

_Jiraiya takes the crying woman to a nearby town and rents out a room at the local inn. He deposits her on the bed and waits for her to calm down._

_Still sniffing on the bed where the sheets had turned wet from tears, she finally speaks. "Why didn't you kill me…?"_

"_I can't just very well kill someone who's screaming at me to kill them." Jiraiya answers her as pours himself a cup of sake. "You're obviously troubled. What's wrong?"_

"_If you want to help me, then kill me. I want to die."_

"_And why should I do that? I have no obligation."_

"_You are the Second Hokage Kazama Seishi."_

_So she knew who he was. He takes a quick sip of his drink. "So?"_

"_You have an obligation to punish deserters."_

_She was telling him that she was a missing-nin. "So you were a former Hidden Leaf ninja?"_

"_No. My grandfather was."_

_He frowned. "What is your name?"_

"_Kagerou."_

"_All right then, Kagerou." He pulls up a chair besides her bed and sits down. "If you claim your grandfather was a Hidden Leaf missing-nin like you say he was, then that doesn't mean that the punishment is automatically handed down to their decedents, you know? I have no obligation to punish you whatsoever. You're not the one who did the deserting."_

"_It should be."_

"_Well too bad. It's not."_

"_Then how am I supposed to die…?" She starts crying again._

_This was getting nowhere fast. "Look, tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help."_

"_The only way you can help is to kill me."_

"_You still haven't explained to me why you want to die."_

"_You wouldn't understand."_

"_Oh really?" He crossed his arms in front of him. "You wouldn't know until you've tried, right?"_

"_I know."_

"_How can you tell?"_

"_Because I can read your mind."_

_A long pause._

"_You doubt me." She said._

"_Well, I'd like to see proof."_

"_Very well. Think of something."_

_Jiraiya did as he was told and Kagerou's face suddenly turned bright red._

_She throws a pillow at his face. "You pervert!"_

"_Oh wow, so you really can read people's minds." He commented as he let the pillow slide away from his face. "That's pretty impressive."_

"_It's a curse." She spat out._

"_Why? I think it's a pretty neat thing you have there… oh. Oh. I see now. You can't turn it off."_

_She nods._

"_This ability of yours, what is it? A bloodline of sorts? I've never seen or heard about it before."_

"_We call it shadow reading."_

"_You said we. Are there many of you?"_

"_All others besides my grandfather and I have gone insane and killed themselves."_

"_Which reminds me, if you wanted to die so badly then why don't you just kill yourself?"_

_It takes a while for her to answer his question. "…My grandfather wished for it. He doesn't want to be alone."_

"_Well aren't you just a loveable granddaughter fulfilling his wishes, aren't you?"_

_She ignored his sarcasm. "I… I had thought that he wouldn't be as sad if he learned I was caught by Hidden Leaf ninjas and was killed in action."_

"_So that's why you wanted me to kill you."_

_She nods again._

"_Who is your grandfather?"_

"…_He…"_

_He noticed she was hesitating. "I understand if you don't want to tell me his name." He tells her. "I won't tell anyone of our meeting if you so wish."_

"…_He is…"_

"_Hm?"_

"…_He doesn't have a name." She eventually answered. "People in the village we live in call him 'old man Uto' since we disguised ourselves as refugees from Uto village, but he's really…" She trails off._

_Jiraiya leans forward, now curious. "He's really… what?"_

"…_He is Sokou."_

"_Sokou?"_

"_Yes. Yonbi no Sokou. He is the jinchuuriki of Sokou, the four-tailed demon cockatrice."_

* * *

_From what Kagerou tells him, her grandfather apparently was once a branch member of the Nara clan who failed a coup attempt on his clan and was forced to flee just years after Fire Country and the Hidden Leaf were first established. The coup attempt involved a forbidden jutsu that summoned the legendary half-bird, half-snake demon into the forest grounds owned by exclusively by the Nara clan and he planned to control the demon cockatrice to stage a takeover. His attempt however backfired when he lost many of his followers in the summoning process and the ritual he orchestrated was in fact a summoning and sealing ritual which sealed the demon inside him instead of remotely controlling the demon like he originally planned. Gravely weakened from having a demon just sealed inside him moments ago, the other members of the Nara clan who quickly caught wind of what was going on then succeeded in banishing him and his family away. The matter was then quickly closed and covered up by the remaining Nara, the clan not wanting to suffer an embarrassment from one of their branch clan families defecting._

"_That certainly explains why I never heard of him before." Jiraiya commented._

_Kagerou then proceeds to explain how the Nara family techniques they had with them then manifested within themselves as a new bloodline. Apparently her jinchuuriki grandfather's demonic blood had a profound effect on his spouse and offspring, as their new abilities then mutated into a bloodline where they could morph themselves into shadows, attach their shadows onto people and control them as they pleased. However, like many other unearthly powers that existed in this world, this one too came with the direst of consequences. The shadow read ability they now possessed allowed them to automatically detect the smallest of changes within a person's shadow, allowing them to insight into what the other person was thinking. It was practically the same thing as reading another person's mind._

"_And you can't shut this ability down." Jiraiya asked again as if to confirm. Kagerou only nodded her head in response._

_Jiraiya thought about it a little further. "Under any circumstances? I mean, how about if you lived in a pitch-black house where there's no light to create shadows?"_

"_Darkness is shadow itself." She replied. "The range of our abilities is also unnaturally large."_

"_How large?"_

"_About twenty kilometres. Isolation is a solution, but with our range it makes that option near impossible."_

"_What if you've turned yourself into a shadow and attach yourself onto a different person? Wouldn't that focus your empathic abilities onto one being?"_

_She seemed a little taken back at the suggestion. "It... is toned down. The effect is still there, but we will be able to control it better." She stared at him. "What are you suggesting?"_

"_I'm only grabbing at straws here, but there may be hope for you after all."_

"_What is it?"_

"_Before that, one more question. Can you allow someone to take over your own body? As in, a reverse shadow possession?"_

_She appeared to be giving the suggestion some thought. "It… is possible, I believe. I will be put into deep sleep, but the new 'host' will be in possession of all my knowledge and strength and the toned down version of my abilities."_

"_Well then!" Jiraiya clapped his hands. "That's a perfect solution for you! You still will be 'Utono Kagerou', but you would be put to rest in deep sleep while your new 'host' will be the one in control of a more controlled version of your ability! This way, you wouldn't have to kill yourself, and you would be giving a poor girl a brand new life! Don't you think that's a good plan?"_

_She narrowed her eyes. "You have a 'host' in mind? Who is this girl you speak of?"_

"_Ah, about that. Yes, she's a girl named Konan, and…"_

_A knock on the door sounded._

"_Excuse me, sir. Are you there?"_

"_Oh, one second!" He called out. He then turned to Kagerou. "Must be room service. I ordered some food earlier, hope you don't mind. Since I was in town I thought I might as well give the local flavour a try, see…" _

_Ignoring the glare he got from the woman on the bed, he got up from his chair and opened the door with a bright smile on his face._

_He was nearly impaled by a sword on the spot._

"_I have come to claim your Raijin, Kazama Seishi."_

* * *

"That's how you two met? He tried to kill you?" Naruto asked in disbelief.

"Well, it couldn't really be helped you see. He was trying to get himself inaugurated into the ranks of the Seven Swordsmen. I was his meal ticket in so to speak."

"How did you get him to calm down? I mean, he didn't know you were you and you didn't know he was Haku right? I didn't even know you _knew_ about Haku."

"You're the one who told me about him, you know."

Naruto blinked in confusion. "Me?" He pointed at himself.

"Yes, don't you remember? During our three year training trip. You told me about your adventures with Team Seven in Wave Country. You told me all about Zabuza and Haku."

"Oh…" He had forgotten about that.

Jiraiya continued on with his explaining. "Naturally, I fought back. I thought he was just one of those run-of-the-mill Mist assassins I could handle with ease, and I thought I might have fun with him since it's been two years since anyone came after my Raijin sword. Turns out, I was wrong. He was quite strong, made a mess out of the inn too. But the more I fought him, the more he reminded me of the Haku you talked about in your stories. So during a small break in battle I commented how he reminded me of a boy named Haku one of my apprentices told me about, and boy oh boy did I get his attention! You should've seen the look on his face. He was quite shocked."

_No kidding. I would've been too._ Naruto thought.

"After he calmed down I explained to him who I was and what I was to you – out of Kagerou's earshot, of course, I didn't want to mess anything up – we learned that we were both sent into this world by the Kyuubi. We then agreed that fighting was pointless since we shared a common link. That's when I decided to ask him for a favour."

"A favour?"

Jiraiya nodded. "The one issue I had when I decided to embark on this trip was I didn't know the whereabouts of Yahiko and Nagato when they were just two years old. Konan I knew because when she was still my student she told me her about her earliest memories once – about how she remembers being on a bridge somewhere in the west boundaries of Water Country, sitting there all alone before some traveling troupe decided to pick her up and adopt her in. She then traveled to Rain Country with them, lived a brief but happy life, then lost her entire adoptive family once again after the troupe got caught up in the Third Great Ninja Wars. After that she met Yahiko and Nagato and, well, after that it's just like I told you. After we parted ways they took a wrong turn somewhere and they ended up in creating the Akatsuki."

"The Akatsuki…" The mention of the criminal organization's name unearthed some unpleasant memories within Naruto.

Jiraiya went on. "But anyway, since I didn't know where Yahiko and Nagato were I had thought that sending Kagerou and Haku to pick Konan up and turn Konan into his apprentice would be a good idea. That way I could concentrate on finding where the other two were while Konan would remain safe under Haku's care. And this way Konan will have the power to protect herself if need be now that she was in possession of Kagerou's abilities, all the while the real Kagerou will be getting her wish of peace and tranquility."

"…All this sounds so… complicated."

Jiraiya chuckled. "Yeah, I guess it can be."

"What happened after that?"

"I offered Haku a place in the Hidden Leaf after he picked Konan up with Kagerou. Unfortunately he was adamant about going back to the Hidden Mist and becoming a member of the Seven Swordsmen so he demanded that, in exchange of him agreeing to this favour, I give my Raijin sword in return. Since I didn't have much use of the sword now that I wasn't a swordsman anymore, I gave it to him. We parted ways after that, agreeing we'd meet again when the Third Great Ninja Wars started up again. He even agreed he'd be willing to be the one to provide the crucial intelligence for our forces in order to successfully thwart off the Hidden Mist invasion so history would be following its proper course."

"So is that why they took Sakura-chan with them?"

"Yes, although I don't think Haku knew Setsuka was Sakura until he saw you. But he couldn't just tell Konan to stop taking over Sakura's body, right? He needed to get out of the village and rejoin the Mist's main force so he could resume his duties as a spy. After he'd collected enough information the plan was for him to come over to the Hidden Leaf along with Konan. He did promise you he'd escort Sakura back to the Leaf after this was all over, no?"

"Did you find this… what were their names again? Nahiko and Yagato?"

"Yahiko and Nagato. Unfortunately, no, I still haven't found them yet. I still have every intention of looking for them, though. I'll have to interfere with the past me meeting with them if I had to."

Naruto crossed his arms in front of him and went into deep thought. There was one thing that was bugging him all throughout his former teacher's explaining. "Ero-sennin…"

"What?"

"Why are you so adamant in following history?"

A sour look crossed Jiraiya's face, and before he could answer another explosion rocketed away above them.

"Geezus! What's going on up there?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Hm." Jiraiya stood. "Well, let's go find out then."

"Huh?"

"My water clones have finished digging their tunnel." He smiled and extended his hand to help him up. He patted Naruto on his back. "How about we go get you some fresh air, hm?"

Naruto grinned brightly. "Hell, it's about time!"

* * *

"Just… just what the hell is going on?"

As much as he hated to admit it, Hiashi knew he was as clueless as Dan when it came to analyzing the situation in front of him.

"Since when did Setsuka dye her hair blue?" Dan continued on with his rambling. "And why is she… so strong? She's practically kicking that Mist guy's ass!"

_That's what I'd like to know._ Hiashi thought as he gritted his teeth as he watched the awesome battle between the Hidden Mist swordsman and his blue-haired sister unfold in front of him. Why was she so strong? And why did she have that insane smile plastered on her face when she tried to attack him? No, more importantly, _why _did she try to attack him?

"Hmph. So she allowed herself to become possessed. How pathetic."

Hiashi froze at the cold voice from behind him. He spun around.

"Father!"

"And I see you two are as incompetent as ever when it comes to matters involving Setsuka." Sen said as he stared his two sons down with his expressionless white orbs. "Can you not see what's going on?"

"What are you doing here!?" Hiashi demanded. "I thought you went to sle-"

Hiashi had no time to react as a backhand slapped into his cheek. "Silence." The icy voice of the Hyuuga Clan's head cut in to the tense atmosphere. "I thought I had forbidden you from ever using that tone with me again, Hiashi." He took a step forward as he coolly observed the battle taking place between his daughter and the Mist swordsman. "Don't underestimate me. I have my own sources to know _exactly_ what's going on within the village. Especially when it comes to matters involving my own clan."

"Sen-sama, what are you-"

"Fool."

A one handed seal shut Hizashi up before he could even come close to finishing his sentence.

"G- _gwaaaaaaaaah!"_

"Hizashi!" Hiashi turned to Sen with visible hatred in his eyes. "Why did you activate his curse seal? He was only trying to-"

"I demanded silence, and fool did not heed my words. This is only appropriate punishment."

"You're taking this too far-"

"LOOK!" Sen spread his arms out in front of him. "Look around you and tell me what you see, Hiashi! What do you see!?"

Hiashi didn't have the slightest clue as to what was going on anymore. "What are you-"

"It is carnage! Carnage, my son! What you see before you is nothing but carnage!" Sen turned to him. "And the one responsible for that carnage is her!" He pointed a finger at the blue-haired girl that was fighting the Mist swordsman with everything she had. "She is the one tarnishing all that we hold dear in the Hidden Leaf, causing nothing but death and destruction!" He turned his back away. "And she must be stopped."

"Hi-Hiashi… don't… don't listen to him. He's telling you to… _AAAAAAHHHHHH!"_

"You fool. Ignoring my demands not only once, but twice! Death is an appropriate punishment for the likes of you!"

"Stop this!" Hiashi screamed at him. "What is it you want with me!?"

"Do you want to save him?" Sen released his seal and turned to him once more. "Then fulfill your duties as a proper member of the Main House. Be the hero that saves the Hidden Leaf, Hiashi."

He pointed at his dear, dear sister.

"You must activate Setsuka's curse seal."

* * *

"_**Perforce"**_

_adv – of necessity, by force of circumstance_

* * *

"_**Empyreal Paradox" **_

_**- Chapter Six - **_

_**-END-**_

* * *

_**Author's Notes:**_

I'm sure you know the drill by now. Let's just celebrate the fact that this chapter is (finally!) out instead.

Onto the notes we go.

The Kyuubi in this fanfic is male. I know there are a lot of fanfics out there that portray the Kyuubi as female and foxes in Japanese legends are also typically female but I just can't see the Kyuubi as female no matter what. In my view the Kyuubi is a seething, restless demon whose sole purpose is to find a way out of his prison so he could take revenge on the people who dared to confine him into a snotty brat (aka Naruto) and is interested in nothing but pure destruction. This is why I can never come to like fanfics where people portray the Kyuubi as actually a good guy (girl), have frequent conversations with Naruto like it was a second voice in its head, give him advices on training and how to become stronger, or, worse, calling Naruto 'kit' and telling him to 'go get that desired mate of his'.

Ugh, no. Just no. The Kyuubi is NOT a dating consultant. He's an ageless, restless, teething, _evil_ demon. He's not your friendly happy neighbourhood disembodied voice living in your head. It hates life and wants to destroy. He's only helping Naruto because he practically has no other say in the matter, and even the 'help' he offers is kinda shady. I'm sticking with canon material thank you very much. As for why he's male, well, the image fits better? That's pretty much the only explanation I can give. Yeah, yeah, stereotype. I know.

Sorry, was ranting.

As for First Hokage's 'Senju' clan, this name is actually canon. The name was revealed in one of the latest Naruto chapters and I decided to incorporate that here since I like sticking to canon as much as possible. The history lesson tidbits are made up by me, however, and the speculation surrounding the First Hokage and the Second Hokage not being blood-related are simply theories. It has never been confirmed as true. Personally I don't think they look like brothers at all, hence the reason I established them as 'blood brothers' instead. Sort of like Naruto and Sasuke.

The Second Hokage's Raijin Sword and the Kurosuki Raito fellow that was mentioned in passing is a reference to two different Naruto Anime filler arcs (Kurotsuki Raito being the reference to Kurotsuki Raiga). Since they are fillers they are by no means canon, but I thought their mentions were rather appropriate and deserved a place in the story. Hence the cameo.

The Konan/Kagerou issue should hopefully be cleared up with the explanations I gave in this chapter. I admit, it was a little funky in delivery but it was the best I could do given the constantly changing materials in the canon manga storyline. I think I put up a decent job with it, though.

Although he was only referred to, the 'old man Uto', the _jinchuuriki _of Yonbi no Sokou (the four-tailed demon cockatrice) introduced in this chapter is actually the same four-tails _jinchuuriki _Kisame captured in Chapter 353 of the Naruto manga. He too will have a role in the story later on, but for now he only makes a cameo appearance.

I also promised to explain just exactly why the hell Madara was Fugaku's sister last chapter, but this chapter came out to be too long and the explanation had to be shoved back so much it looks like it might not be explained even in the next chapter. Oh wells. But I assure you readers, there _is_ an explanation for this.

That's about it I think.

As usual, reviews, questions, comments, and criticism are always welcome. I will again answer them to the best of my ability. Just… don't be too disappointed if you don't get a reply. I can really be lazy about it sometimes.

Until the next chapter, signing off.

- Nes Mikel

_Chapter Six, Complete, March 23rd, 2008_


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